Setctoa:      .A(^A54- 


■Columbia  illniberjEiitp 

STUDIES  IN  CLASSICAL  PHILOLOGY 


RELIGIOUS  CULTS 
ASSOCIATED  WITH  THE  AMAZONS 


COLUMBIA 

UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

SALES  AGENTS 

New  York: 

LEMCKE  &  BUECHNER 

30-32  West  27th  Street 

London : 
HENRY  FROWDE 
Amen  Corner,  E.C. 

Toronto: 

HENRY  FROWDE 

25  Richmond  Street,  W. 


DEC   5  191 


KELIGIOUS  CULTS 


ASSOCIATED  WITH  THE  AMAZONS 


BY 


FLORENCE  MARY  BENNETT,  Ph.D. 


mi 


Beta  porfe 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1912 


Copyright,  1912 
By  Columbia  University  Press 

Printed  from  type,  July,  1912 


Press  of 

The  Hew  era  printing  Company 

Lancaster.  Pa. 


This  moriograyh  has  been  approved  by  the  Department  of 
Classical  Philology  in  Columbia  University  as  a  contribution  to 

knowledge  worthy  of  publication. 

Clarence  H.  Young, 
Chairman. 


TO 

Professor  and  Mrs.  Clarence  Hoffman  Young 


CONTENTS 

Chapter 

I.  The  Amazons  in  Greek  Legend 1 

11.  The  Great  Mother 17 

III.  Ephesian  Artemis 30 

IV.  Artemis  Astrateia  and  Apollo  Amazonius 40 

V.  Ares 57 

Conclusion 73 

Bibliography 77 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Amazons  in  Greek  Legend 

The  Iliad  contains  two  direct  references  to  the  Amazons: — 
namely,  in  the  story  of  Bellerophon^  and  in  a  passage  from 
the  famous  teichoscopy.^  The  context  to  which  the  first  of 
these  belongs  is  classed  by  critics  as  an  "echo"  from  the  pre- 
Homeric  saga,  and  therefore  it  may  be  inferred  that  the 
Amazon  tradition  in  Greek  literature  dates  from  a  time  even 
earlier  than  the  Homeric  poems.  The  description  of  the 
women  here  is  very  slight,  being  given  by  the  epithet  avriaveipa^i 
of  the  line:  to  rpiTOv  av  Kare7r€<f)vev  'A/ia^oW?  avTtaveipa^ ^^ 
but,  from  the  facts  that  battle  with  them  is  considered  a  severe 
test  of  the  hero's  valour  and  that  as  warriors  they  are  ranked 
with  the  monstrous  chimaera,  the  fierce  Solymi,  and  picked 
men  of  Lycia,  we  gather  that  they  are  conceived  as  beings  to 
be  feared.  The  scene  of  combat  with  them  is  Lycia.  The 
second  of  the  two  passages  cited  above  is  more  definite. 
Priam,  exclaiming  on  the  happy  lot  of  Agamemnon,  who  has 
been  pointed  out  to  him,  says  to  Helen:  "Oh,  happy  Atreid, 
fate's  child,  blessed  with  prosperity !  Verily,  to  thee  are  many 
subject,  youths  of  the  Achaeans!  Once  did  I  go  to  vine-rich 
Phrygia,  where  I  beheld  vast  numbers  of  Phrygian  men  with 
swift-moving  steeds,  the  people  of  Otreus  and  godlike  Mygdon, 
who  were  then  encamped  by  the  banks  of  the  Sangarius.  For 
I  was  numbered  an  ally  with  these  on  that  day  when  the  Ama- 
zons came,  pitted  against  men.  Yet  even  these  were  not  as 
many  as  are  the  quick-glancing  Achaeans."  Although  the 
characterisation  is   the   same   as  in   the   Bellerophon   story 

» Iliad,  6.  168-195. 
« Ibid.  3.  182-190. 
» Ibid.  6.  186. 
2  1 


CAfjLa^6v€<i  avTidpeipai) ,  there  is  gain  in  that  the  impression 
of  the  Amazons  as  a  mighty  band  of  warriors  is  strengthened, 
also  that  the  event  has  its  place  in  the  conventional  chronology 
of  Greek  legend,  antedating  the  Trojan  War.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
moreover,  that  here  the  Amazons  are  the  aggressors  on  the 
confines  of  Phrygia. 

There  is  another  allusion  in  Homer  to  the  Amazons,  although 
this  is  indirect  rather  than  direct.  It  occurs  in  the  second 
book  of  the  Iliad,  where  the  spot  of  assembly  for  the  Trojans 
and  their  allies  is  designated:^  "There  is  before  the  city  a 
certain  lofty  barrow,  in  the  plain  far  away,  standing  detached 
on  this  side  and  on  that,  which  men,  forsooth,  call  Batieia, 
but  the  immortals  name  it  the  grave  of  swift-bounding 
Myrina.  Here  then  were  the  Trojans  numbered  and  their 
allies."  The  scholiast  and  the  commentary  of  Eustatius  on 
the  passage  tell  that  this  Myrina  was  an  Amazon,  the  daughter 
of  Teucer  and  the  wife  of  Dardanus,  and  that  from  her  the 
city  Myrina  in  Aeolis  was  said  to  have  been  named.^  It 
seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  commentators  are  correct, 
for  in  later  literature  we  hear  much  of  an  Amazon  by  this 
name,  and  there  is  frequent  mention  of  graves  of  various 
Amazons,  here  and  there  in  Greek  lands,  always  regarded  with 
wonder  and  awe  akin  to  the  reverence  with  which  Homer 
mentions  the  tomb  of  Myrina. 

The  Amazons  then,  as  they  appear  in  the  Homeric  poems, 
are  a  horde  of  warrior  women  who  strive  against  men,  and 
with  whom  conflict  is  dangerous  even  to  the  bravest  of  heroes. 
They  belong  to  Asia  Minor,  seemingly  at  home  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Lycia  and  opponents  of  the  Phrygians  on  the 
river  Sangarius.  About  the  grave  of  one  of  their  number 
there  lurks  a  hint  of  the  supernatural.     The  poet  does  not 

*Ibid.  2.  811-815. 

'  Cf.  Diod.  Sic.  3.  54,  55;  Strabo,  12.  573;  13.  623;  Plato,  Cratyl.  392a;  SchoL 
Oppian,  Halieutica,  3.  403;  Hesych.  s.v.  ^arUia  and  s.  /cdpO/xoio  Mvplvrji;  Eust. 
ad  D,  Per.  828. 


say  whether  she  was  friend  or  foe  of  Troy.  On  the  analogy  of 
similar  graves  pointed  out  in  various  parts  of  Greece,  she  who 
lay  buried  there  may  well  have  been  a  foe,  yet  later  Greek 
commentators  saw  in  this  one  an  ancestress  of  the  royal  line 
of  Troy. 

In  this  they  may  have  drawn  on  the  Aethiopis,  which  tells 
of  an  alliance  between  Amazons  and  Trojans.  We  pass  thus 
from  the  Homeric  Epic  to  the  Epic  Cycle.  Proclus  in  the 
Xpi]a-T0/xd6€La  TpafifiaTtK'^,  whence  Photius  quotes  excerpts, 
says  that  the  last  book  of  the  Iliad  was  followed  by  the 
Aethiopis  in  five  books,  written  by  Arctinus  of  Miletus  (circa 
750  B.C.).  He  starts  the  argument  thus:  "The  Amazon 
Penthesilea,  daughter  of  Ares,  a  Thracian  by  birth,  appears 
to  give  aid  to  the  Trojans.  In  the  pride  of  her  valour  Achilles 
slays  her,  and  the  Trojans  bury  her.  Achilles  destroys 
Thersites  for  speaking  slander  against  him  and  carping  at  his 
alleged  love  for  Penthesilea;  whence  there  is  a  division  among 
the  Greeks  in  regard  to  the  murder  of  Thersites."  It  is  not 
possible  to  trace  the  story  of  Penthesilea  beyond  the  date  of 
the  Aethiopis.  How  much  the  poet  made  of  the  romantic 
situation  drily  described  by  Proclus,  it  cannot  be  determined, 
for  the  evidence  has  perished  with  the  work.  Certainly  it 
did  not  lose  in  pathetic  details  at  the  hands  of  the  writers 
and  painters  of  later  years.  The  outline  preserved  by  Proclus 
speaks  only  of  the  "alleged  love"  of  Achilles  for  the  queen, 
yet  that  affords  a  starting-point  for  the  play  of  much  romantic 
fancy  in  subsequent  times.^  The  fact  that  in  the  Aethiopis 
Penthesilea  is  called  a  Thracian  raises  the  question  whether 
the  author  does  this  lightly,  or  whether  he  has  serious  thought 

'Save  for  one  unimportant  version  (Dar.  Phryg.),  wherein  Penthesilea  is 
slain  by  Pyrrhus,  son  of  Achilles,  her  death  by  the  hand  of  her  lover  Achilles  is  a 
regxilar  convention  in  Greek  literature.  Cf.  Q.  Sm.  1.  19  ff.,  134;  Nonnus,  35.  28; 
HeUan,  in  Tzetz.  Post-Horn.  19;  EL  M.  493,  41;  Lycoph.  997;  Diet.  Cret.  3. 
15;  4.  2;  Bust.  Horn.  1696,  52;  Hyg.  Fah.  112,  225;  Serv.  ad  Aen.  1.  491;  Just. 
2.  4;  Ovid,  Her.  21.  118;  Prop.  3.  9,  14.  For  evidence  concerning  the  treatment 
of  the  subject  in  Greek  painting  see  Paus.  5.  11,  6. 


of  Thrace  as  the  home  of  the  race  and  of  Ares  as  their  patron 
deity.  Diodorus"  gives  Ares  as  the  father  of  Penthesilea  and 
Otrere  as  her  mother,  and  St.  BasiP  adds  that  she  was  queen  of 
the  Amazons  of  Alope  in  Pontus,  but  elsewhere^  Otrere  too  is 
called  a  daughter  of  Ares,  her  mother  being  Harmonia,  while 
her  children  are  Hippolyta  and  Penthesilea.  Ares,  however, 
is  quite  steadily  named  by  Greek  writers  as  the  father  of  the 
Amazons  in  general,  and  Harmonia,  as  their  mother,^° 

Another  Amazon  is  mentioned  by  name  in  an  epic  fragment 
preserved  by  the  schohast  on  Pindar's  third  Nemean  Ode, 
line  64:  "Telamon  of  insatiate  battle-shout  was  the  first  to 
bring  light  to  our  comrades  by  slaying  man-destroying, 
blameless  :\Ielanippe,  own  sister  to  the  golden-girdled  queen." 
This  new  character  is  attested  an  Amazon  by  the  epithet 
avSpoXereipav,  a  vigorous  variant  on  avridveipa,  and  by  her 
kinship  with  the  "golden-girdled  queen,"  who  can  be  none 
other  than  Hippolyta.  The  adjective  aficonrjTov  is  conven- 
tional and  colourless.  The  fragment  must  belong  to  a  long 
passage — if  not  to  a  whole  poem — descriptive  of  the  combat 
waged  by  Telamon  and  his  comrades  against  the  Amazons." 

That  the  well-worn  story  of  Heracles  and  the  "golden- 

■  Diod.  Sic.  2.  46. 

s  St.  Basil,  s.v.  'AXin-Tj. 

9  Cf.  Ap.  Rh.  2.  389  and  Schol.  Tzetz.  Post-Horn.  8.  189;  Schol.  Ap.  Rh.  2. 
1032;  Schol.  Iliad,  3.  189;  Lye.  Cass.  997;  Hyg.  Fab.  30,  112.  163,  223,  225. 

i»Pherec.  ap.  Schol.  Ap.  Rh.  2.  992;  Lys.  2.  4;  Isoc.  4.  68;  12.  193;  Nonnus, 
34.  158.     For  a  discussion  of  the  bearing  of  this  fact  see  Chapter  V. 

"  Welcker  (Der  epische  Cyclus,  2.  pp.  200  ff.)  derives  the  lines  from  the  Atihis 
or  Amazonides  of  Hegesinus,  a  writer  for  whom  the  only  extant  source  is  Pausa- 
nias,  9.  29, 1  ff.  Llibbert,  however  {De  Pindari  Studiis  Heswdeis  et  Homericis, 
pp.  10  ff.),  derives  them  from  the  Eoeae  of  Hesiod,  an  opinion  which  Rzach 
follows  (ed.  of  Hesiod,  p.  197).  A  third  theorj'  is  advanced  by  Corey  (De  Ama- 
zonum  Antiquissimis  Figuris,  p.  42),  namely,  that  the  fragment  is  from  the  work 
of  Cynaethus  {circa  504  B.C.).  On  the  chance  that  it  is  older  than  Corey  be- 
lieves, the  fragment  should  be  considered  along  with  the  data  which  may  be 
collected  about  the  Amazons  from  the  literature  of  the  centuries  immediately 
following  Homer. 


girdled  queen"  had  its  place  in  some  song  of  the  Epic  Cycle 
seems  a  reasonable  admission/^  and  it  may  therefore  be 
considered  proper  to  sketch  its  simple  outline,  as  it  appears  in 
later  poetry  and  prose.  By  the  excellent  testimony  of  the 
early  vases  which  show  Heracles  and  the  Amazon  together 
the  epic  source  of  the  later  versions  of  the  tale  is  dated  in  the 
period  from  the  eighth  to  the  sixth  century  B.C.  The  general 
plot  is  this: — Heracles,  arrived  at  Themiscyra,  prepares  to 
give  battle  for  the  girdle,  in  search  of  which  he  has  been  sent, 
but  succeeds  in  obtaining  it  from  the  queen  without  force  of 
arms,  whereupon  Hera  arouses  the  other  Amazons  against 
him.  In  the  fight  which  ensues  Heracles  is  victorious,  but 
he  slays  Hippolyta.^^  For  the  first  time  we  hear  of  Themiscyra 
on  the  Thermodon  as  the  home-city  of  the  Amazons.  As  in 
the  case  of  Penthesilea  and  Achilles  this  legend  of  Heracles  and 
Hippolyta  has  a  touch  of  romance. 

Even  more  romantic  interest  gathers  about  the  story  of 
Theseus  and  his  Amazon,  called  usually  Antiope,  but  often 
Hippolyta.  The  secret  of  this  lies  probably  in  the  great 
vogue  accorded  to  the  traditional  adventures  of  Theseus,  the 
national  hero  of  Athens.  As  in  vase  painting  Heracles,  once 
popular  with  the  masters  of  the  old  style,  was  gradually 
crowded  aside  by  Theseus,  so  it  happened  in  literature.  It 
would  seem  that  the  epic  from  which  the  story  of  Theseus  and 

"  Robert  {Hermes,  19.  pp.  485  ff.)  conjectures  a  single  epic,  the  Amasonika 
by  Onasus,  as  the  source  of  the  accounts  of  the  expedition  of  Heracles  and  Tela- 
mon  given  by  Pindar  in  three  places,  Nemean,  3.  36  ff.;  4.  25  ff.;  Isthmian,  6 
(5).  27  ff.  He  dates  this  lost  epic  before  the  sixth  century  B.C.  Corey  (op.  cit. 
pp.  35  ff.)  finds  evidence  for  two  epic  accounts,  the  fii'st  epitomised  by  Hellanicus 
(Fr.  33,  136,  138  in  Miiller,  Frag.  Hist.  Graec.  1.  pp.  49-64),  the  second  given  by 
Apollodorus  (Bibl.  2.  5,  9,  7-12;  6.  4-7,  1). 

"  On  Heracles  and  Hippolyta  cf.  Plut.  Thes.  37;  Paus.  1.  41,  7;  Ap.  Rh.  2.  781 
and  Schol.  1001;  Nonn.  25.  251;  Q.  Sm.  1.  24;  6.  242;  Planud,  Anthol.  91;  Isocr. 
12.  193;  Apollod.  2.  5,  9;  Diod.  Sic.  2.  46,  416;  Plut.  Quaest.  Or.  45;  Pherec.  ap. 
Athen.  13.  557,  9;  Arrian,  Anab.  7.  13,  5;  Luc.  Anach.  34;  Zen.  5.  33;  Et.  M. 
402,  13. 


Antiopje^  \ra5  derived  Tra?  later  than  that  which  was  the  source 
of  ihe  tale  of  Heraoies,  for  Theseus  appears  in  cv^mpany  with 
the  Amazons  only  on  \'ases  of  the  red-fii:uT>c>d  technique,  never 
on  the  older  specimens  of  ceramic  art,^-"  According  to  Paii- 
sania>r*  there  were  two  versions  of  the  story  of  Antiope:  that 
of  Pindar,  who  told  that  she  was  stolen  by  Pirithous  and 
Theseus,  and  that  of  Agias  or  Hegias  of  Troezen.  who  told 
that  when  Heiades  with  Theseus  ai^  a  cv>mj>anion  was  besieging 
Themisc>Ta,  Antiope  betrayed  the  citA*  for  Ioa^  of  Theseus. 
The  Athenian  ston-  of  the  invasion  of  Anica  by  the  Amazons 
in  search  of  their  queen  c<>mplements  either  version.  How 
much  material  Euripides  drew  from  the  Cycle  for  his  con- 
o^tMHi  d  the  mother  of  Hippohtus  as  the  discarded  wife  of 
Tlieseus  cannot  be  determined. 

The  contribution  which  the  Epic  Cycle  seems  to  have 
made  to  the  idea  of  the  Amazons  piesented  by  Homer  may  be 
summed  up  as  characterisation  of  indi\'iduals  of  the  race. 
To  Homer  the  Amazons  ai>e  merely  a  horde  of  redoubtable 
warriors,  who  appear  at  the  gates  of  the  Asiatic  worid.  To 
the  later  epic  they  are  a  people  who  dwell  in  a  cit>'  on  the 
Eu^dne  at  the  mouth  of  the  Thermodon.  They  are  thus 
conceived  as  a  senled  race  on  the  outskirts  of  ci\-ilisation. 
They  bdong  to  the  eastern  lands  whither  only  adventurers 
and  hardy  colonists  dared  to  sail.  The  stories  told  of  their 
hercanes,  Penthesilea.  Hippohta,  and  Antiope,  bring  the  race 
into  direct  contact  with  Greek  legendarv-  history. 

To  say  that  in  Homer  the  Amazons  are  creatures  of  fable, 
in  the  Cyde  women  of  rDmannc  legend,  and  to  the  Greek 

**  Ote  Tfaeseos  aad  Aaooiie  <?'.  Faii&  ol  11.  4-5:  Flut.  Tl<s.  26  (from  Kaflo- 
ehon^:  Isocr.  PimmwA.  1S3;  Plat.  Tkes.  (qoodss  Titeseid);  fSwiar  ^  Ftas. 
1. 2. 1:  Fhaee.  ql  Plat.  Tics.  aS;  Si^oL  Fted.  .Vak.  5.  S9;  Ffaife.  (rkx.  27)  aztd 
E»iiiik!i»  (gtgpi^ihu)  nane  tMs  Awwnw  B^)imlyta. 

^  Ctai  tke  amboinv  of  Weida-  nost  sdialais  eoi^kkr  ^e  .VtK^t  of  A^uts  or 
Hq^ss  tke  «{iir  somve  kr  ^le  tsks  of  Tbeser?  sr:^    «--— -^ 

»Pm&  1-  2,  I. 


historians  a  race  of  the  barbarkiLS,  seems  a  more  or  less 
seniceable  way  of  expressing  the  growth  of  thought  on  this 
subject,  so  far  as  it  is  now  to  be  ascertained.  The  value  of 
such  a  statement  lies  in  its  being  suggestive,  rather  than 
strictly  accurate  in  detail.  It  is  only  another  way  of  saving 
that  epic  verse  as  a  medium  of  narration  had  given  place  to 
prose.  Evidently  the  invasion  of  Attica,  an  event  probably 
first  described  in  the  Cycle,  is  the  hifdoric  fad,  as  the  Greek 
historians  regarded  it,  on  which  all  doubts  about  the  reality 
of  the  Amazons"  might  be  broken,  for  as  a  memorial  there  were 
to  be  seen  many  tombs  of  these  women  in  Greek  lands.^' 
The  tale  which  Pausanias^''  heard  about  the  Hippob-ta  who  was 
buried  at  Megara  b  probably  t>-pical  of  the  poetic  legends 
current  among  the  country-folk  wherever  there  was  the 
tradition  of  the  Amazons'  coming: — "I  will  write  her  stor\- 
as  the  Megarians  tell  it:  "VNTien  the  Amazons  made  their 
expedition  for  Antiope's  sake  and  were  overcome  by  Theseus, 
it  was  the  fate  of  the  many  to  die  in  battle,  but  Hippohta, 
who  was  sister  to  Antiope  and  was  at  that  time  in  command  of 
the  women,  fled  with  a  few  to  Megara.  But,  inasmuch  as 
she  had  fared  so  ill  with  her  armament,  and  was  cast  down  by 
the  circumstances  of  the  present,  and  was  still  more  dis- 
couraged about  a  safe  return  to  ThemiscjTa,  she  died  of  grief, 
and  the  shape  of  her  tomb  is  like  to  an  Amazonian  shield." 
The  place  given  to  the  invasion  of  the  Amazons  in  the  chron- 

1'  For  a  good  Etatement  of  the  general  attitude  in  ancient  times  on  tiii^  q^ies- 
tion  of  the  reality  of  the  Amazons  see  Strabo,  11.  p.  oa5.  According  to  Lysias 
(Epitaph.  3)  the  race  of  the  Amazons  was  almost  exterminated  in  the  invasion 
of  Attica.  Cf.  Isocr.  ParuegT/r.  p.  206;  Demosth.  Epitaph.;  Plato,  Menex.  9; 
De  LfjQQ.  2.  p.  804. 

I*  Tomb  of  .\ntiope  at  Athens,  Paus.  1.  2,  1;  cf.  Pseudo-Plato,  Axioch.  pp. 
364a-36oa.  Tomb  of  Hippobta  at  Megara,  Paus.  1.  41,  7;  cf.  Hut.  Tlv^.  27. 
Tomb  of  Amazons  at  Chaeronea  and  in  Thessaly,  Plut.  Theg.  28.  Tomb  of 
Myrina  near  Troy,  Iliad,  2.  Sll,  and  schoL  and  Eust.  ad  I:  cf.  Strabo,  12.  573; 
13.  623.  Tomb  of  Anaea  in  the  city  of  that  name,  Steph.  Byz.  s.v. '  Ajnia  (quot- 
ing Ephorus).     Tomb  of  Penthesilea,  Aristeas,  ep.  5  (Bergk,  1900). 

»  Paus.  1.  41,  7, 


8 

icles  of  the  historians  seems  to  have  been  as  fixed  as  that  of 
the  Trojan  War.  Herodotus'-'^  represents  the  Athenians 
claiming  a  post  of  honour  before  the  battle  of  Plataea.  sup- 
jwrting  their  plea  by  these  "deeds  of  eld"  (-a  TaXatd): 
first,  their  succour  of  the  Heraclidae.  second,  their  campaign 
against  Thebes  in  vengeance  of  the  dead  followers  of  Polynices, 
third,  their  courage  in  the  face  of  the  iuvaders,  "  who,  coming 
from  the  river  Thermodon,  fell  once  upon  the  Attic  land," 
and,  finally,  their  inferiority  to  none  in  the  Trojan  War. 
The  order  of  events  here  places  this  invasion  before  the  Trojan 
War,  a  chronological  arrangement  iu  accord  with  the  tradi- 
tional date  of  Theseus. 

Herodotus,  it  will  be  observed,  keeps  to  the  geographical 
theory*  of  the  Cycle,  placing  the  home  of  these  warriors  on  the 
banks  of  the  Thermodon.  Strabo"-^  clearly  follows  Herodotus 
and  his  successors,  for  he  calls  the  plain  about  Themiscyra 
TO  -cov  'Xua^ovcov  TreBiov.  but  Diodorus."  giving  the  account  of 
Dionysius  of  Mitylene,  who,  on  his  part,  drew  on  Thymoetas,^ 
states  that  a  great  horde  of  Amazons  under  Queen  ^lyrina 
started  from  Libya,  passed  through  Eg>'pt  and  Syria,  and 
stopped  at  the  Caicus  in  Aeolis,  near  which  they  founded 
several  cities.  Later,  he  says,  they  established  Mitylene  a 
Uttle  way  beyond  the  Caicus. 

In  addition  to  Myrina  in  Aeolis-'  and  Mitylene  on  Lesbos, 
several  cities  of  Asia  ]^Iinor  boasted  that  they  were  founded 
by  the  Amazons.^     Consistent  with  these  claims  is  the  fact 

»  Herod.  9.  27. 

^  Strabo.  2.  126. 

=  Diod.  Sic.  3.  52  ff. 

a  Cf.  Diod.  Sic.  3.  66. 

**  There  were  nro  other  cities  in  Asia  Minor  named  MjTina.  All  three  were 
connected  with  the  name  of  the  Amazon,  but  among  them  the  city  of  Aeolis 
seems  to  take  precedence.  Cf.  Eust.  ad  Dion.  Per.  S2S.  5;  Schol.  Iliad,  2.  Sl-i; 
Diod.  Sic.  3.  54,  55;  Strabo,  12.  573;  13.  623. 

*  Cf.  Klugmann,  Uber  die  Amasonen  der  kleinasiatischen  Stadie,  in  Phi- 
lologua,  30.  pp.  529  ff.  These  cities  were  Ephesus,  Smsma,  Cyme,  Paphos,  and 
Sinope. 


9 

that  in  this  neighbourhood  the  figure  or  head  of  an  Amazon 
was  in  vogue  as  a  coin-tj'pe,^  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  such 
devices  are  verj'  rarely  found  on  coins  elsewhere.  In  a  frag- 
ment of  Ephorus,  who  was  a  native  of  Cyme  and,  therefore, 
presumably  conversant  with  the  details  of  the  legends  there- 
abouts, the  Amazons  are  said  to  have  lived  in  and  near  Mysia, 
Caria,  and  Lydia.  This  evidence  as  a  whole  seems  to  point, 
not  to  the  plain  at  the  mouth  of  the  Thermodon  as  the  tra- 
ditional dwelling-place  of  the  race,  but  to  a  centre  much  further 
west,  namely,  to  that  part  of  Asia  Minor  which  borders  on 
the  Aegean.  It  is  easy  to  reconcile  this  with  the  geographical 
setting  of  the  story  of  Bellerophon,  wherein  Homer  tells  that 
the  Amazons  were  sought  and  found  somewhere  near  Lycia. 
Not  far  away  are  the  Island  of  Patmos,  where  there  was  a 
place  called  Amazonium,-"  and  the  island  of  Lemnos,  where 
there  was  another  M\Tina.-^  Arctinus  is  said-^  to  have 
introduced  into  the  saga  the  motive  of  a  cavalry  combat  waged 
by  the  Lydians  and  Magnesians  against  the  Amazons,  of 
which  the  scene  would  naturally  be  in  this  part  of  the  world, 
but  this  same  writer's  statement,  that  Penthesilea,  who  came 
to  the  help  of  Troy,  was  a  Thracian,  directs  the  attention  away 
from  Asia  Minor,^°  although  Thrace  lay  just  across  the 
Hellespont,  near  the  Troad.  It  may  well  be,  however,  that 
the  thought  of  Thrace  in  intimate  association  with  this  queen 
is  rather  to  be  aligned  with  the  facts  indicating  yet  a  third 
traditional  home  for  the  race,  namely,  in  the  regions  of  Scjiihia 
north  of  the  Euxine  and  Lake  Maeotis. 

Herodotus  e\-idently  considered  Themiscyra   the  original 

*«  C/.  especially  coins  of  Smyrna. 
"  Anon.  St.  Mar.  M.  283. 
"  Plin.  N.  H.  4.  12. 
"  Nic.  Dam.  Fr.  62. 

'0  The  story  that  Penthesilea  bore  to  Achilles  a  child  Cayster  ia  probably 
too  late  to  be  of  any  value  to  this  discussion- 


10 

home  of  the  Amazons.^^  At  any  rate,  having  once  designated 
them  the  "women  from  the  Thermodon,"  he  does  not  go  back 
of  the  characterisation  in  search  of  their  antecedents.  Perhaps 
the  service  which  he  does  perform  is  of  greater  value,  in  that, 
by  pointing  out  a  group  of  people  whom  he  believes  to  be 
descended  from  the  Amazons,  he  seems  to  be  pushing  these 
forebears  of  the  legendary  time  into  the  full  light  of  history. 
He  tells^^  of  the  migration  of  a  band  of  Amazons  into  the 
wild  northern  region  between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian, 
beyond  Lake  Maeotis  and  the  Tanais.  From  their  inter- 
marriage with  the  Scythians  the  Sauromatae  were  descended,  a 
Scythian  tribe  among  whom  the  women  were  warriors  and 
hunters.  Other  writers^^  also  speak  of  the  Amazons  on  the 
Maeotic  Lake,  a  sheet  of  water  best  known  to  the  Greeks  by 
its  western  boundary,  the  Tauric  Chersonese,  the  place  where 
Iphigeneia  lived  as  priestess  of  the  cruel  goddess.  Even 
the  Caucasus  mountains  and  the  hazily  conceived  Colchian 
land  lay  nearer  to  the  Hellenic  world  than  this  savage  Scythian 
region.  Greek  travellers  brought  back  accounts  of  strange 
customs  among  these  northern  tribes.  They  told  of  the 
Tauri,  that  they  immolated  all  shipwrecked  strangers  to  their 
Artemis,^^  and  of  the  Sauromatae,  that  none  of  their  women 

*i  As  it  has  been  stated  (p.  6),  this  is  the  geographical  theory  of  the  Cycle. 
It  should  be  added  that  Hecataeus,  who  associates  Sinope  on  the  Euxine  with 
the  Amazons  (Fr.  352),  and  Mela,  who  mentions  a  city  Amazonium  in  Pontus 
(1.  19;  c/.  Plin.  N.  H.  6.  4),  are  probably  to  be  classed  with  the  non-epic  sources 
who  follow  the  theory. 

»2  Herod.  4.  110-117. 

"The  Amazons  are  often  styled  Maeotides.  Cf.  Mela,  1.  1;  Justin,  2.  1; 
Curt.  5.  4;  Lucan,  2;  Ovid,  Fasti,  3;  El.  12;  Ep.  Sab.  2.  9;  Verg.  Aen.  6.  739. 

In  discussing  the  geography  of  this  region  about  Lake  Maeotis,  a  note  is 
called  for  on  the  confusion  which  Pape  finds  (Worterbuch,  s.v.  'A/ia^dv)  between 
'A\a^wi>es  and  'A/xa^wpei.  It  would  seem  that  the  former  is  a  misspelling  for 
the  latter,  appearing  in  Strabo's  quotation  from  Ephorus  (12.  550).  That  the 
masculine  article  is  used  with  it  does  not  seem  odd,  if  one  recalls  St.  Basil's 
statement  (s.v.  'Ajaofwy),  that  the  word  may  stand  in  the  masculine.  Herodo- 
tus mentions  (4.  17,  52)  a  folk  called  'AXtfajj/es,  whose  country  lay  on  the 
northeast  shore  of  the  Euxine,  but  these  are  not  Amazons. 

»4  Herod.  4.  102  ff. 


11 

married  until  she  had  slain  a  man  of  the  enemy .^^  The  Greek 
equivalent,  avhpoKTovoi,  which  Herodotus  gives  for  the  Scythian 
word  meaning  "Amazon"  {olopirara) ,  is  strongly  suggestive 
of  the  epithets,  avTidveipaL  and  avSpoXereipat,  used  of  the  Ama- 
zons.^^ 

Aeschylus  in  the  Prometheus  Bound?"^  also  associates  the 
Amazons  with  the  north.  The  geography  of  this  passage  is 
interesting  in  comparison  with  that  of  Herodotus,  because  the 
poet  antedates  the  historian  and  therefore  represents  the  vague 
reports  of  these  regions  which  preceded  the  carefully  considered 
mapping  evolved  by  Herodotus.  Aeschylus  places  the  Nomad 
Scythians  far  to  the  north,  near  the  Ocean,  in  which  Strabo^^ 
follows  him,  whereas  Herodotus^^  finds  them  definitely  estab- 
lished on  the  Gulf  of  Carcinitis,  west  of  the  Tauric  Chersonese. 
The  Chalybes,  whom  Herodotus^"  and  Strabo'^^  locate  south  of 
the  Black  Sea,  are  by  Aeschylus  relegated  to  northern  Scythia. 
And,  strangest  of  all,  he  seems  to  place  Mount  Caucasus 
north  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Sea  of  Azov.  South  of  this 
are  "the  Amazons,  man-hating,  who  will  in  a  later  time  dwell 
in  Themiscyra  by  the  Thermodon."  Elsewhere  in  the 
Prometheus'^^  the  Amazons  are  called  "the  dwellers  in  the 
Colchian  land,  maidens  fearless  in  battle,"  and  their  home  is 
evidently  placed  near  that  of  "the  throng  of  Scythia,  who 
possess  the  land  at  the  ends  of  the  earth  about  Lake  Maeotis." 
In  the  Suppliants'^^  Aeschylus  speaks  again  of  the  Amazons, 
here  as  ra?  avavSpovf  Kpeo^opovi  r  'AiJLa^6va<;,  a  characterisation 
which   suggests   another  line   of    his,    quoted    by    Strabo:^"* 

»6  Herod.  4.  117. 

'8  V.  supra,  pp.  1  and  4. 

»^  Prom.  V.  707-735. 

«« Strabo,  p.  492. 

»9  Herod.  4.  19. 

«  Herod.  1.  28. 

<i  Strabo,  p.  678. 

«  Prom.  V.  415-419. 

«  Supplices,  287. 

"  Strabo,  7,  p.  300. 


12 

aW  i'mrdKi]<i  ^pcoTrjpa  evvofioL  ^KvOai.  Aeschylus  then 
apparently  places  the  original  home  of  the  Amazons  in  the 
country  about  Lake  Maeotis,  conceiving  this  region  to  be 
practically  identical  with  the  Colchian  land,  or  contiguous 
to  it.  He  speaks  of  their  migrating  thence  to  Themiscyra, 
while  Herodotus  holds  the  opposite  theory,  that  they  migrated 
from  an  original  home  at  Themiscyra  to  Scythia.  It  seems 
proper  to  give  the  preference  to  the  latter  as  the  view  com- 
monly held  in  antiquity,  for  Herodotus  is  the  later  writer  and 
the  more  scientific  student  of  geography.  Strabo,  who  had 
large  opportunities  for  the  comparison  of  conflicting  accounts, 
pointedly  says^^  that  Themiscyra,  the  plain  thereabouts,  and 
the  overhanging  mountains  belonged  to  the  Amazons,  and 
that  they  were  driven  from  this  home.^^ 

It  may  be  concluded  that  there  were  three  centres  to  which 
Greek  tradition  assigned  the  Amazons: — one  in  western  Asia 
Minor, — a  large  district  in  the  form  of  a  strip  stretching  from 
the  Propontis  to  the  tip  of  Lycia;  the  second  in  Pontus  along 
the  Euxine,  with  a  western  boundary  at  Sinope,  an  eastern 
at  Colchis,  and  a  southern  undefined,  somewhere  in  the 
interior  of  Cappadocia;  a  third  in  Scythia,  conceived  as  the 
Tauric  Chersonese,  the  regions  east  of  Lake  Maeotis,  those 
north  of  the  same  lake,  and  probably  also  those  which  border 
the  Euxine  on  the  north  and  west,  including  Thrace.  Each 
of  these  is  an  area  so  large  that  only  by  extension  of  the  term 
may  it  be  denoted  a  centre.  Threads  of  affiliation  reach  out 
also  to  Libya,  Egypt,  and  Syria.  Out  of  this  maze  the  source 
of  the  Amazon  legend  is  to  be  sought.  To  round  out  this 
brief  summary  of  the  geography  of  the  legend  the  list  should 

«  strabo,  p.  505. 

**  As  the  Greeks  travelled  more,  there  was  a  growing  tendency  among  them 
to  place  the  original  home  of  the  Amazons  further  and  further  away.  As  they 
did  not  find  such  a  folk  in  western  Asia  Minor,  or  along  the  southern  shore  of 
the  Euxine,  it  was  natural  for  them  to  suppose  that  they  were  to  be  sought  in 
the  little  explored  regions  of  Scythia,  also  of  Libya.  Such  reasoning  was  rein- 
forced by  reports  which  came  of  Scythian  and  Libyan  women  who  were  warriors. 


13 

be  set  down  of  the  places  in  Greece  proper  which  are  especially 
mentioned  in  the  tale  of  the  invasion  of  the  Amazons: — 
Athens/^  Troezen,*^  Megara/^  Chaeronea/"  Chalcis  in 
Euboea,^!  Thessaly.^2 

But  the  story  of  the  Amazons  as  the  Greeks  thought  of 
them  would  not  be  complete  without  several  additional  details. 
Among  these  is  the  tradition,  which  has  seized  powerfully 
on  the  imagination  of  later  times,  that  it  was  the  custom  of 
these  women  to  burn  out  the  right  breast,  in  order  that  they 
might  the  better  draw  the  bow.^^  The  story  is  usually  ex- 
plained as  an  attempt  to  derive  the  word  'Afia^otv  from  fta^o? 
with  prefix  of  a  privative.  It  seems  probable  that  this  false 
etymology  grew  out  of  the  theory  that  the  Sarmatians  were 
descendants  of  the  Amazons,  for  Hippocrates  of  Cos,  a 
younger  contemporary  of  Herodotus,  gives  a  detailed  account 
of  the  practice  among  the  Sarmatian  women.^^  Philostratus^^ 
takes  pains  to  say  that  the  Amazons  were  not  thus  mutilated. 
Most  cogent  as  an  argument  against  the  universality  of  the 
theory  in  ancient  times  is  the  fact  that  nowhere  among  the 
extant  remains  of  Greek  art  is  there  a  representation  of  a 
single-breasted  Amazon.  All  that  can  be  brought  forward  for 
the  other  side  from  artistic  sources  is  that  there  was  evidently 
a  convention  in  favour  of  showing  one  breast  bare  in  plastic 
and  pictorial  delineations  of  these  women. 

«'  Paus.  1.  2,  1;  Diod.  Sic.  4.  28,  2,  3;  Clitod,  ap.  Plut.  Thea.  27;  Isaeua  ap. 
Harpocration ;  Suidas,  s.v.  '  Afia^Sveiov. 

"  Paus.  2.  31,  4-5. 

"  Paus.  1.  41,  7;  Plut.  Thes.  27. 

"  Plut.  Thes.  28. 

"  Plut.  Thes.  37,  3. 

«  Plut.  Thes.  28. 

"  Schol.  and  Eust.  ad  Iliad,  3.  189;  Diod.  Sic.  2.  45;  Justin,  2.  4,  5;  ApoUod. 
2.  5,  9;  Arrian,  Anab.  7.  13,  2.     Cf.  Latin  Unimammia  of  Plautus,  Curcul.  3.  75, 

'<  Hippocr.  De  Aere  Locis  et  Aquis,  17.  Herodotus  seems  to  have  been  the 
first  to  speak  of  the  Sarmatians  as  descendants  of  the  Amazons  (4.  110-117). 
In  this  he  was  followed  by  Ephorus  (Fr.  103);  Scymn.  Chius,  5.  102;  Plato,  De 
Legg.  7.  p.  804;  Diod.  Sic.  2.  34. 

"  Philostr.  Heroid.  20.  42. 


14 

This  naturally  introduces  the  general  subject  of  the  treat- 
ment of  the  Amazons  in  Greek  art.  The  battle  between 
Greeks  and  Amazons  was  a  favourite  theme  with  the  sculptors 
of  friezes.  Its  companion  pieces  are  the  fight  between  Lapiths 
and  Centaurs  and  the  historic  struggle  between  Greeks  and 
Persians.  In  each  of  these  subjects  the  Greek  requisite  of 
simplicity  in  art  demanded  that  the  essential  element  should 
be  sought  by  analysis,  in  order  that  the  composition  might 
present  the  situation  in  a  telling  manner.  It  follows  that  the 
point  brought  out  in  the  scenes  from  the  Persian  Wars  is  that 
Greek  is  pitted  against  Persian,  in  the  Centauromachy,  that 
it  is  civilised  man  against  bestial  man,  in  the  conflict  with  the 
Amazons,  that  the  battle  is  between  man  and  woman.  There- 
fore the  Greek  artist  emphasises,  in  the  first,  the  national  dress 
of  the  combatants,  in  the  second,  the  savage  appearance  of 
the  monsters,  in  the  third,  the  womanhood  of  the  Amazons 
contrasted  with  the  manhood  of  their  enemies.  Uniformly 
in  the  friezes  the  Amazons  are  beautiful.  Those  who  have 
fallen  are  treated  by  the  artist  with  peculiar  tenderness;  those 
who  are  brought  to  bay  are  spirited  and  valiant,  but  also 
delicate  and  frail;  those  who  are  for  the  moment  victorious 
show  no  savage  exultation,  as  do  the  fierce  Centaurs  in  the 
same  situation.  Their  costume  is  usually  a  short  tunic  girt 
up  for  action,  frequently  open  at  one  side  in  order  to  display 
the  woman's  figure.  The  effort  is  always,  not  to  show  them 
to  be  foreigners  who  wear  a  fantastic  garb,  but  to  indicate 
plainly  that  they  are  women  warring  with  men. 

The  famous  free-standing  statues  of  Amazons  which  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  which  inherit  the  artistic  tradition  of  the 
masters  of  the  fifth  century ,^^  show  the  same  sympathetic 
treatment.  The  face  is  calm  and  ideally  beautiful,  the  body 
is  that  of  a  young  woman  in  her  prime,  strong,  supple,  and 

"  C/.  Plin.  N.  H.  34.  75. 


15 

graceful,  dressed  in  a  short  tunic  which  leaves  one  breast 
bare.^^ 

There  are  also  examples  of  the  mounted  Amazon  in  sculp- 
ture. Perhaps  one  of  the  finest  bits  in  existence  is  the  frag- 
ment of  horse  and  woman-rider  from  Epidaurus,  now  in  the 
National  Museum  at  Athens.  This  Amazon  wears  a  short 
belted  tunic  and  also  a  mantle  fastened  about  her  neck.  She 
is  remarkably  lithe  and  beautiful;  she  sits  her  horse  perfectly; 
best  of  all  is  the  contrast  between  her  slender  body  and  the 
powerful  and  sinewy  frame  of  the  animal. 

In  the  museum  at  Naples  there  is  a  piece  of  sculpture  in  the 
style  of  a  later  period.  It  represents  a  dead  Amazon,  lying 
supine.  She  wears  the  conventional  dress,  the  short  tunic 
which  reveals  the  bare  breast,  and  under  her  is  a  spear.  Her 
lips  are  open  in  the  last  struggle  for  breath.  About  the  whole 
figure  there  is  a  note  of  sadness.  The  distended  breasts 
suggest  maternity,  a  detail  which  possibly  indicates  that  the 
figure  of  a  baby  was  originally  grouped  with  this  Amazon. 
Special  interest  attaches  to  this  work  as  a  type  of  the  Amazon 
in  the  last  days  of  Greek  art,  before  its  vigour  had  departed, 
for  it  is  doubtless  a  detail,  in  close  copy  of  the  original,  from 
the  group  which  Attains  set  up  on  the  Acropolis  at  Athens.^^ 

In  vase-paintings,  rather  than  in  sculpture,  we  find  the 
characteristic  weapons  of  the  Amazons,  the  shield  shaped  like 
an  ivy-leaf,^^  the  Scythian  bow,^°  and  the  battle-axe.^^  Here 
also  we  see  the  mantle  of  panther's  skin  similar  to  that  which 
Penthesilea  wore  in  the  painting  by  Polygnotus  at  Delphi.^- 

''  In  the  Mattel  type  the  left  breast  is  bare,  in  the  Capitoline,  the  right.  In 
the  Berlin  type  and  in  that  in  Lansdowne  House  the  left  breast  is  entirely  bare, 
and  the  right  is  almost  entirely  so. 

58  Paus.  1.  25,  2;  Plut.  Anton.  60;  S.  Q.  1995,  1996. 

"Xen.  ap.  Pollux,  1.  134;  Phn.  N.  H.  3.  43;  Paus.  1.  41,  7. 

M  Paus.  10.  31,  8. 

"  The  double-axe  is  called  adyapi^  (securis)  and  also  ttAeki/j.  C/.  Xen. 
Anab.  4.  4;  Q.  Sm.  1.  597.  Plutarch  (Pomp.  35)  mentions  the  axe  and  the  pelta 
as  Amazonian  arms.     The  latter  was  carried  also  by  the  Thracians  and  Persians. 

«  Paus.  10.  31,  8. 


16 

The  types  of  Amazons  in  vase-painting  are  numerous.  They 
are  shown  in  every  conceivable  situation  indicative  of  their 
prowess  in  battle  and  in  the  hunt, — on  foot,  on  horseback,  in 
chariots,  preparing  for  combat,  taking  the  ephebes'  oath, 
bearing  away  the  dead,  and  so  on.^^  The  groups  on  the 
vases  frequently  recall  the  friezes.  In  addition  to  these  por- 
trayals of  the  Amazons  in  general  the  vases  show  scenes  from 
the  Heracles  saga  and  from  the  legend  of  Theseus. 

The  inference  is  inevitable,  that  among  the  great  painters 
the  Amazons  were  popular  as  a  subject,  for  it  is  to  be  pre- 
sumed that  in  these  themes,  as  in  others,  the  potters'  work- 
shops  merely  followed  the  fashion  of  the  art  which  they 
distantly  reflected.     First-hand  evidence  of  the  manner  in 
which  painters  managed  the  presentation  is  not  available. 
The  vases  furnish  the  best  information  on  this  point,  and  their 
testimony  may  be  eked  out  by  a  few  passages  from  literature.®* 
Such  then  in  a  general  way  is  the  tradition  of  the  Amazons, 
which  had  an  important  place  in  Greek  art  and  literature. 
This  review  is  the  natural  introduction  to  the  study  of  cults 
associated  with  these  women,  for  without  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  legend  certain  details  of  cult-practice  are  obscure. 
The    points    which    should    bear   emphasis    are    these:— the 
persistent  belief  among  the  Greeks  in  the  real  existence  of 
Amazons;  the  conception  of  them  as  unusually  fierce  warriors, 
and  this  in  spite  of  various  tendencies  of  thought  destructive 
of  such  an  idea;  the  habit  of  associating  them  with  certain 
definite  geographical  centres. 

"  Corey  tabiilates  the  types  which  he  finds  in  vase-painting,  op.  cit.  pp.  49  ff. 
M  C/.  e.  g.  Paus.  1.  15,  2;  10.  31,  8.     Cf.  Frazer,  Pans.  2.  139. 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Great  Mother 

More  primitive  than  the  worship  of  the  gods  under  anthro- 
pomorphic form  is  the  custom  of  reverencing  this  or  that  deity 
in  baetylic  or  aniconic  shape,  a  habit  of  reHgious  cult  for 
which  there  is  ample  evidence  in  the  writings  and  monuments 
of  the  Greeks.  This  evidence,  however,  usually  indicates  such 
worship  only  in  very  early  times,  showing  that  it  gave  place 
here  and  there  to  a  more  highly  developed  stage,  that  of  iconic 
symbolism,  but  there  are  examples  of  this  primitive  conception 
of  deity  in  late  times.  Conspicuous  among  these  survivals 
is  the  worship  of  Cybele  under  the  form  of  the  Black  Stone  of 
Pessinus  in  Phrygia.  By  order  of  the  Sibylline  books  the 
cult  was  transplanted  to  Rome,  in  204  B.C.,  as  a  means  of 
driving  Hannibal  out  of  Italy .^^ 

Apollonius^^  represents  the  Amazons  engaged  in  ritual 
exactly  similar  to  that  of  Pessinus — venerating  a  black  stone 
placed  on  an  altar  in  an  open  temple  situated  on  an  island  off 
the  coast  of  Colchis.  The  character  of  the  worship  which  he 
depicts  makes  it  probable  that  he  drew  his  information  on 
this  point  from  an  early  source,  especially  since  we  learn  from 
Diodorus®^  that  the  Amazons  paid  marked  honour  to  the 
Mother  of  the  Gods,  consecrating  to  her  the  island  of  Samo- 
thrace,  setting  up  her  altars  there,  and  performing  magnificent 

«Livy,  29.  10,  11. 

'^ApoUon.  Argon.  2.  1172-1177.  Because  of  its  resemblance  to  the  Black 
Stone  of  Pessinus,  it  seems  impossible  to  interpret  the  stone  mentioned  by 
Apollonius  otherwise  than  as  the  symbol  of  Cybele,  although  it  was  placed  in  a 
temple  of  Ares.  For  the  view  that  it  represented  Ares  v.  H.  de  La  Villa  de 
Mirmont,  La  Mythologie  et  les  Dieux  dans  les  Argonautiques  et  dans  I'Eniide, 
Paris,  1894,  p.  569.  V.  infra,  n.  346. 
67  Diod.  Sic.  3.  55. 

3  17 


18 

sacrifices.  At  any  rate,  the  two  passages  substantiate  the 
fact  that  the  Amazons  were  votaries  of  the  Mother,  who  was 
known  both  as  Rhea  and  as  Cybele. 

One  story®^  told  that  Scamander  introduced  the  rites  of 
the  Cretan  Mother  into  Phrygia,  and  that  they  were  firmly 
established  at  Pessinus  on  the  Sangarius  as  a  chief  centre, 
where  the  goddess  received  from  the  mountain  ridge  over- 
hanging the  city  the  well-known  name,  Dindymene;^^  another 
account^"  had  it  that  the  home  of  Phrygian  Cybele's  worship 
was  in  Samothrace,  whence  Dardanus  brought  the  cult  to 
Phrygia;  an  attempt  to  rationalise  the  two  legends  developed 
the  tale^^  that  Corybas  of  Samothrace,  son  of  Demeter  and 
Jasion,  introduced  the  rites  of  his  mother  into  Phrygia,  and 
that  his  successors,  the  Corybantes  of  Mount  Ida  in  the  Troad, 
passed  over  to  the  Cretan  mountain  of  the  same  name,  in 
order  to  educate  the  infant  Zeus.  In  the  minds  of  the  various 
writers  of  antiquity  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  all  that  we 
know  about  orgiastic  cults  there  is  such  confusion  that  we  are 
left  in  ignorance  of  accurate  details  which  would  serve  to 
distinguish  sharply  one  cult  from  another. 

We  are  informed  on  several  points,  however,  concerning 
the  worship  of  Cybele,  the  Great  Mother  of  Phrygia,  con- 
sidered apart  from  other  cults  similar  in  character  and  ex- 
pression. Her  worship  at  Pessinus  in  particular  is  most 
important  to  an  inquiry  concerning  the  Amazons,  because 
there,  attested  by  history,  was  the  same  baetylic  form  of  the 
goddess  under  which  the  Amazons  were  said  to  have  venerated 
her.  Roman  writers  naturally,  after  the  Black  Stone  had 
been  set  up  in  their  city,  were  moved  by  interest  and  curiosity 
to  examine  the  legends  connected  with  the  cult,  and  so  it 

"ApoUod.  3.  12;  Diod.  Sic.  4. 

«9Strabo,  10.  pp.  469,  472;  12.  p.  567.  Cf.  Hor.  Carm.  1.  16,  5;  Catull. 
Atys,  63. 

"  Diod.  Sic.  5.  64. 
»  Hyg.  Poet.  2.  4, 


19 

happens  that  to  these  sources  we  owe  many  facts,  often 
gleaned  from  the  poets  of  the  early  Empire  who  looked  with 
disgust  on  the  great  vogue  of  this  orgiastic  cult  in  their  day. 
Cybele  of  Pessinus  was  served  by  eunuch  priests  called  Galli.^^ 
This  office  of  priesthood,  which  was  considered  very  honour- 
able, seems  to  have  commemorated  the  devotion  of  Atys  to 
the  goddess.  Fortunately  we  have  a  record'^  of  the  peculiar 
form  which  the  legend  of  Atys  assumed  at  Pessinus.  Here  he 
was  regarded  as  the  son  of  a  maiden  by  the  fruit  of  an  almond- 
tree,  which  sprang  from  the  bi-sexual  Agdistis.  Agdistis^^ 
loved  him  and  made  him  her  paredros  and  Gallus.  From  the 
same  source,  Pausanias,  we  learn  the  Lydian  variant  of  the 
story. '^  In  this  he  is  called  the  son  of  Calaiis  of  Phrygia. 
He  established  the  orgies  of  the  Mother  in  Lydia,  in  connection 
with  which  he  was  so  loved  by  the  goddess  that  Zeus  in  jealousy 
sent  a  wild  boar  into  the  fields  of  Lydia,  which  killed  Atys. 
Both  versions  show  that  the  youth  held  in  Cybele's  mysteries 
a  position  similar  to  that  of  Adonis  with  Aphrodite  and  of 
Osiris  with  Isis,^^  but  it  seems  to  have  been  the  peculiar 
characteristic  of  the  cult  of  Cybele  that  her  companion  was  a 
Gallus.  The  fact  which  stands  out  conspicuously  in  all  the 
records  of  the  Pessinuntian  rites  is  the  service  of  effeminate 
priests,'^^  who  apparently  represent  him.     In  this  there  is 

"Strabo,  10.  pp.  469,  572;  12.  p.  567;  14.  pp.  640-641;  Diod.  Sic.  3.  58; 
Mar.  Par.  ap.  C.  MtlUer,  Fr.  1.  544;  Ovid,  Fasti,  4.  237,  363;  Plin.  N.  H.  5.  147; 
11.  261;  31.  9;  35.  165;  Catull.  Atys.     Cf.  Anthol.  Pal.  7.  217-220. 

"  Paus.  7.  17,  10-12. 

''*  Strabo  (12.  p.  567)  says  that  Cretan  Rhea  received  the  name  Agdistis  at 
Pessinus,  and  that  on  Mt.  Agdistis  near  this  city  the  tomb  of  Atys  was  shown. 
Cf.  Paus.  1.  4,  5. 

"  Paus.  7.  17,  9-10. 

'8  For  a  complete  treatise  on  Atys  cf.  Frazer,  Attis,  Adonis:  Osiris,  in  Golden 
Bough,  Part  4. 

"  The  idea  was  revolting  to  the  Greeks.  Cf.  Herod.  3.  48;  8.  105;  Aristot. 
Polit.  5.  8,  12.  The  practice  was  common  among  the  Phrygians  and  other 
Asiatics  of  ancient  times.  With  Herod.  8.  105  cf.  Soph.  Fr.  from  Troilus  ap. 
Pollux,  10.  165.     As  a  rehgious  detail  it  belonged  to  the  rites  of  Artemis  at 


20 

probably  a  clue  to  the  connection  between  Cretan  Rhea  and 
Phrygian  Cybele,  for  in  the  two  sets  of  cult  legends  there  is 
frequent  mention  of  the  Dactyli,  who  belong  both  to  Cretan 
and  Trojan  Ida.'^^  Their  evident  association  with  metallurgy 
recalls  the  iron  sickle  produced  by  Gaea  and  given  to  Cronus 
to  accomplish  the  overthrow  of  Uranus.'^^ 

The  underlying  idea  in  the  cult  of  Cybele  seems  to  have 
been  that  of  an  earth-goddess  of  fertility  in  man,  beast,  and 
field.  Her  worship  was  accompanied  by  the  sound  of  crashing 
drums  and  cymbals,  the  music  of  the  pipe,  and  the  voices  of 
frenzied  votaries.  Of  her  inspiration  came  a  form  of  holy 
madness,  which  endowed  the  worshipper  with  a  sense  of  mystic 
ecstasy  and  supernatural  strength.  The  best  extant  descrip- 
tion of  the  rites  is  that  given  by  Lucretius,^°  which,  although 
it  is  marred  by  the  allegorising  tendency  of  the  poet's  thought, 
conveys  an  excellent  impression  of  the  tumultuous  festival. 
The  most  awe-inspiring  detail  of  the  ceremonies  is  that  beneath 
the  joy  of  the  throng's  self-surrender  to  the  deity  there  is  a 
terrific  undertone  like  that  of  the  muttering  drums.  The 
fervour  of  rejoicing  may  in  a  moment  become  the  curse  of 
irresistible  madness  sent  by  the  Mother.  It  is  a  presage  of 
the  mourning  in  the  Atys  of  Catullus  :^^ 

"  Dea  Magna,  Dea  Cybele,  Dindymi  Dea,  Domina, 
Procul  a  mea  tuus  sit  furor  omnia,  hera,  dome: 
Alios  age  incitatos:  alios  age  rabidos!" 

Ephesus,  to  those  of  Zeus  and  Hecate  at  Lagina  in  Caria,  to  those  of  Aphrodite 
at  Bambyce,  or  Hierapolis,  in  Syria.  In  each  of  these  instances  the  deity  par- 
takes in  some  measure  of  the  characteristics  of  Cybele.  Cf.  Farnell,  Cults  of  the 
Greek  States,  2.  pp.  506  S.,  p.  590. 

"Hesiod.  Theog.  161;  Schol.  Ap.  Rh.  1129  (quoting  Phoronis);  Strabo,  10. 

p.  472. 

"  The  story  of  the  overthrow  of  Uranus  belongs  to  the  Hesiodic  theogony 
(Hes,  Theog.  160,  182).  It  has  a  counterpart  in  the  later  Orphic  theogony,  in 
the  story  of  the  overthrow  of  Cronus  by  Zeus.  Both  myths  centre  about  the 
Dictaean  Cave  in  Crete.  The  worship  of  Dictaean  Zeus  seems  to  have  belonged 
to  the  Eteocretans  (Strabo,  10.  p.  478). 

80  Lucr.  De  Rerum  Natura,  2.  600-640. 

81  CatuU.  Atys,  ad  finem. 


21 

Ancient  notices  speak  of  other  priests  of  Cybele,  less 
important  than  the  GalH.  These  were  the  Cybebi  and 
Metragyrtae,^^  mendicant  friars,  whose  machinations  at  Rome 
were  scorned  by  Juvenal.^' 

In  the  cult  legends  the  Galli  of  history  are  probably  repre- 
sented by  the  Corybantes,  about  whom  there  is  much  con- 
fusion. At  times  they  seem  to  belong  only  to  Cybele's  rites, 
at  other  times  they  are  completely  identified  with  the  Curetes. 
Probably  the  tales  of  Corybantes  and  Curetes  preserve  the 
record  of  primitive  armed  dances  of  religious  character,  in 
honour  of  Phrygian  Cybele  and  Cretan  Rhea  respectively. 
As  the  two  deities  are  essentially  the  same,^"*  so  the  hoplite 
attendants  of  the  one  are  practically  the  same  as  those  of  the 
other.  As  each  cult  assumed  local  individuality,  the  myths 
concerning  the  Corybantes  would  gradually  appear  to  be 
quite  distinct  from  those  about  the  Curetes.  Naturally, 
only  an  initiate  in  the  mysteries  attached  to  either  cult  would 
possess  accurate  information  on  details,  and  his  lips  would  be 
inevitably  sealed  on  all  important  points,  so  that  posterity 
must  be  content  to  remain  puzzled  by  remarks  like  this  of 
Pausanias:^^  "In  lineage  the  Corybantes  are  different  from 
the  Curetes,  but,  although  I  know  the  truth  about  both,  I 
pass  it  over."  Unfortunately  certain  writings  by  Epimenides^" 
which    might   have   proved    highly    satisfactory    to    modern 

**  Photius  and  Suidas  s.v.  /x-qrpayijpTris.  These  priests  find  a  strikingly  exact 
counterpart  in  the  howling  dervishes  of  Mohammedanism.  In  fact,  many  close 
parallels  to  the  worship  of  the  Great  Mother  may  be  met  in  the  Orient  to-day. 
The  word  Cybebus  is  evidently  the  masculine  form  of  the  name  of  the  goddess, 
given  by  Herodotus  as  Kk/Stj/Stj  (Herod.  5.  102). 

83  Juv.  Sat.  6.  512  ff. 

^  The  two  deities  were  so  completely  blended  into  one  that  even  in  early 
Greek  wTitings  it  was  needless  to  discriminate  between  them.  Cf.  the  complete 
identification  of  Rhea  with  Cybele  in  the  Homeric  Hymn  to  the  Mother  of  the 
Gods  (14). 

85  Paus.  8.  37,  6. 

8«  The  KovprjTuv  and  Kopv^avruv  Y^yetrts  of  Epimenides,  referred  to  in 
Strabo,  10.  p.  474,  and  Diog.  Laert.  1.  10. 


22 

inquiry  have  perished.  In  the  actual  ceremonies  performed  at 
Cybele's  shrines  the  original  warlike  character^'^  was  almost  lost 
in  the  mystic  frenzy  which  found  expression  in  noisy  shouting 
and  self-affliction,  but  it  is  doubtless  to  be  traced  in  the 
measured  beating  of  drums,  the  clashing  of  cymbals,  and  the 
music  of  the  pipe,  which  set  the  rhythm  for  the  ecstatic 
motions  of  the  worshippers.  It  was  expressed  also  in  the 
political  and  warlike  aspect  of  the  goddess  thus  adored.^^  The 
Cretan  legends  told  that  the  Phrygian  Corybantes  were 
summoned  to  the  island,  where  by  beating  their  shields  with 
their  swords  they  drowned  the  cries  of  the  new-born  Zeus 
from  the  ears  of  his  jealous  father,  and  so  originated  the 
Pyrrhic  dance  in  which  the  later  Curetes  honoured  Rhea,  by 
moving  to  and  fro  in  measured  time,  nodding  their  crested 
helmets,  and  striking  their  shields.^^ 

The  Curetes  are,  moreover,  confounded  with  the  Dactyli, 
who  are  usually  given  as  five  in  number, — Heracles,  Paeonius, 
Epimedes,  Jasion,  and  Idas,^° — the  metallurgists  of  Cretan  and 

*'  In  the  course  of  excavations  at  Palaikastro  in  Crete  a  hymn  of  the  Curetes 
was  discovered,  which  is  dated  about  300  B.C.  The  hymn  is  discussed  in  three 
papers,  British  School  Annual,  15  (1908-09):  (1)  Miss  J.  E.  Harrison  (pp.  308- 
338),  "The  Kouretes  and  Zeus  Kouros:  A  Study  in  Pre-historic  Sociology"; 
(2)  R.  C.  Bosanquet  (pp.  339-356),  Text  of  the  Hymn  and  certain  religious  as- 
pects, "The  Cult  of  Diktaean  Zeus"  and  "The  Cult  of  the  Kouretes";  (3) 
Gilbert  Murray  (pp.  356-365),  Restored  Text,  Translation,  and  Commentary. 
Miss  Harrison's  study  is  under  these  headings:  "1.  The  Kouretes  as  Aalfwves 
and  np6iro\oL;  2.  The  Kouretes  as  Magicians,  as  Mdureis  and  Metallurgists; 
3.  The  Kouretes  as  armed  'Opxijcr^pes;  4.  The  Kouretes  as  <t>i5XaKes  and 
nai5oTp6(f>oi;  5.  Zagreus  and  the  Thunder-Rites;  6.  The  Kouros  as  Year-God; 
7.  The  Kouretes  as  'Opyio(f>dvTai."  The  three  articles  form  a  very  valuable  con- 
tribution to  the  study  of  orgiastic  cults  and  kindred  subjects. 

88  Farnell  speaks  with  certainty  (op.  cit.  2.  p.  306)  of  the  primitive  warlike 
character  of  Cybele. 

"  Hesiod.  Theog.  452,  487;  ApoUod.  1.  1,  6.  The  Orphic  theogony  connects 
the  shouts  of  the  Curetes  and  the  clashing  of  their  shields  with  the  story  of  the 
overthrow  of  Cronus  by  Zeus.  Cf.  Lobeck,  Aglaoph.  p.  519;  Hermann,  Orphica, 
6.  p.  456. 

""  Paus.  5.  7,  6.  The  scholiast  on  the  passage  says  that  they  were  ten  in 
number.     Paus.  gives  the  same  names  for  the  five,  5.  14,  7. 


23 

Trojan  Ida,  also  with  the  mysterious  "AvaKTe^;  TratSe?,  who  are 
either  the  Dioscuri  or  the  Cabiri.^^  Idas  is  the  name,  not 
only  of  a  Curete,  but  likewise  of  one  of  the  Messenian  rivals 
and  counterparts  of  the  Spartan  AioaKovpoif^  Jasion  is  the 
name  of  the  mortal  whom  Demeter  loved  in  Crete, ^^  and  who 
with  her  belongs  to  the  mysteries  of  Samothrace;  the  Dactyl 
Heracles,  whom  Pausanias^"*  carefully  distinguishes  from 
Alcmena's  son,  is  by  this  writer^^  very  cleverly  identified  with 
the  deity  of  this  name  worshipped  at  Erythrae  in  Ionia,  at 
Tyre,  and  even  at  Mycalessus  in  Boeotia.  The  Cabiri,  being 
confounded  with  the  Dactyli,  are  brought  into  close  relation 
to  the  Curetes.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  confused  with 
the  Corybantes  through  Corybas,  son  of  Jasion  and  Demeter, 
who  was  said  to  have  introduced  his  mother's  worship  into 
Phrygia  from  Samothrace.^^ 

Of  the  Cabiric  mysteries  very  little  can  be  said  with  cer- 
tainty, except  that  Demeter  was  here  revered  as  the  mother 
of  Plutus  by  Jasion.  Herodotus,^'^  himself  an  initiate,  believes 
the  mysteries  of  Samothrace  to  be  of  Pelasgic  origin.  He 
hints  at  a  connection  between  these  rites  and  the  Pelasgians' 
introducing  herms  at  Athens.  Furthermore,  he  describes'^ 
the  type  under  which  the  Cabiri  were  portrayed  in  plastic  art, 
that  of  a  pygmy  man,  precisely  like  the  pataici,  or  grotesque 
figure-heads  which  the  Phoenician  triremes  carried.  Excava- 
tions at  the  Cabirium  in  Thebes  have  yielded  a  unique  class  of 
vases  which  confirm  his  statement. ^^    Their  chief  interest, 

"  Paus.  10.  38,  7. 

«  On  Idas  and  Lynceus  cf.  Find.  Nem.  10.  55-90;  Paus.  4.  3,  1. 
«  Hes.  Theog.  970;  Verg.  Aen.  3.  168. 
"  Paus.  5.  7,  6;  5.  14,  9. 
w  Paus.  9.  27,  6-8. 
»6  Diod.  Sic.  5.  64;  Hes.  Theog.  970. 
»'  Herod.  2.  51. 
»8  Herod.  3.  37. 

"C/.  JouTn.  Hellen.  Studies,  13.  pi.  4;  Atheniscfie  Mitteilungen  (1888),  pi. 
9-12. 


24 

apart  from  the  peculiarities  of  technique,  is  in  the  frank 
caricature  shown  in  the  painted  figures.  The  scenes  are 
chiefly  Dionysiac  in  character,  from  which  it  is  to  be  inferred 
that  the  Theban  Cabirus  was  a  form  of  Dionysus,  but  this 
hardly  agrees  with  the  words  of  Pausanias,^"''  who  uses  the 
plural  number  of  the  Cabiri  at  Thebes.  He  says  that  he  is 
not  at  liberty  to  reveal  anything  about  them,  nor  about  the 
acts  which  were  performed  there  in  w^nour  of  the  Mother, 
that  he  can  only  say  that  there  was  once  a  city  on  this  spot, 
that  there  were  certain  men  called  Cabiri,  among  whom  were 
Prometheus  and  his  son,  Aetnaeus,  and  that  the  mysteries 
were  given  by  Demeter  to  the  Cabiri.  This  account  favours 
Welcker's  theory^°^  that  the  Cabiri  were  the  "Burners."  In 
this  capacity  they  would  approach  closely  to  the  Dactyli. 
But  they  are  not  for  this  reason  necessarily  divorced  from 
companionship  with  Dionysus,  whom  Pindar^^^  calls  the 
paredros  of  Demeter:  ')(^aXKOKp6Tov  wdpehpov  Aijfi'^Tepo'i.  The 
epithet  x^-XKOKporov  shows  the  intimate  bond  between  Demeter 
and  the  Mother  of  the  Gods.^°^  Dionysus  is  placed  naturally 
at  the  side  of  the  former,  since  his  worship,  in  cult  and  in 
legend,  is  to  be  classed  with  that  of  the  Great  Mother  of 
Phrygia,  Rhea's  double.^°^  Demeter  is,  indeed,  the  Earth- 
Mother  of  Greece,  on  whose  cult  ideas  were  grafted  which 

"»  Paus.  9.  25,  5-6. 

101  Welcker,  Aeschyl.  Trilogie,  pp.  161-211.  He  connects  the  word  with 
Kaleiv. 

102  Pindar,  Isth.  6.  3. 

"3  Cf.  Homeric  Hymn,  14.  3^. 

1°^  On  the  Phrygian  character  of  the  music  used  in  the  worship  of  Dionysua, 
cf.  Aristot.  Polit.  8.  7,  9.  Euripides  in  the  Bacchae  completely  identifies  the 
rites  of  Dionysus  with  the  Phrygian  worship  of  the  Mother.  Cf.  especially 
lines  58  ff.  Euripides  in  the  Helena,  1320  ff.,  assigns  to  Demeter  all  the  at- 
tributes of  Rhea.  Apollodorus  tells  (3.  5,  1)  that  Dionysus,  driven  mad  by 
Hera,  was  cured  by  Rhea  at  Cybela  in  Phrygia,  and  that  he  received  from  her 
woman's  attire. 


25 

belonged  to  the  ceremonial  of  the  Mother  in  Phrygia  and 
Lydia.i°^ 

So  it  is  not  strange  that  the  Samothracian  goddess  closely 
approximates  the  form  of  Cybele,  and  that  we  find  the  Ama- 
zons consecrating  this  island  to  the  Mother  of  the  Gods.^°^ 
But  there  is  room  for  much  conjecture  concerning  the  meaning 
of  the  connection  between  the  Amazons  and  the  deity  of 
Samothrace.^"^  It  is  probable  that  there  is  some  bearing  on 
this  in  the  legend  of  the  settlement  of  Samothrace  recorded  by 
Pausanias.^"^  This  tells  that  the  people  of  Samos,  driven  out 
by  Androclus  and  the  Ephesians,  fled  to  this  island,  and  named 
it  Samothrace  in  place  of  the  older  name,  Dardania.  The 
charge  which  Androclus  had  brought  against  the  Samian  exiles 
was  that  they  had  joined  the  Carians  in  plotting  against  the 
lonians.  It  would  appear  then  that  these  colonists  of  Samo- 
thrace were  bound  by  strong  ties,  probably  of  blood,  to  the  pre- 
lonic  population  of  Ephesus  and  its  environs,  by  whom  the 
shrine  of  Ephesian  Artemis  was  founded,  a  shrine  indissolubly 
connected  with  the  Amazon  tradition.^"^  With  these  facts 
must  be  considered  the  opinion  of  Herodotus  that  the  Samo- 
thracian mysteries  were  of  Pelasgian  origin. 

In  Samothrace  there  were  also  Corybantic  rites  of  Hecate. 

ic^On  the  worship  of  Cybele  in  Lydia  c/.  Herod.  5.  102;  Paus.  7.  17,  9-10, 
An  epitaph  by  Callimachus  {Epigram.  42,  p.  308,  ed.  Ernst)  illustrates  the 
general  resemblance  of  one  orgiastic  cult  to  another.  This  tells  of  a  priestess 
who  had  served  Demeter  of  Eleusis,  the  Cabiri,  and,  finally,  Cybele.  Cf.  also 
the  history  of  the  Metroiim  at  Athens,  which  was  in  earlier  times  a  temple  of 
Eleusinian  Demeter  (Arrian,  A.  O;  Hesych.  s.v.  EWtiye/Lios;  Dion.  Hal.  Dein. 
11.  p.  658,  3),  but  served  later  as  temple  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods,  of  whom 
Phidias,  or  Agoracritus,  made  the  statue  with  tympanum  and  lions  as  attributes 
(Arrian,  Peripl.  9;  Paus.  1.  3,  5;  Plin.  A''.  H.  36.  17;  Aesch.  1.  60;  Diog.  Laert. 
6.  2,  3;  Epistol.  Gr.  p.  239;  Photius  and  Suidas  s.  v.  fii^Tpayvprrii). 

lo"  Diod.  Sic.  3.  55. 

10'  Kern  holds  (Arch.  Am.  1893,  p.  130)  that  in  the  statement  of  Diodorus 
there  is  no  proved  connection  between  the  Amazons  and  the  mysteries  of  Sa- 
mothrace. 

"s  Paus.  7.  4,  3. 

"'  Cf.  ch.  Ill  on  Ephesian  Artemis. 


26 

These  were  performed  in  the  Zerynthian  cave/^°  from  which 
Apollo  and  Artemis  derived  an  epithet.^^^  The  sacrifice  of 
dogs  to  Hecate  held  a  prominent  place  in  these  mysteries. 
This  sacrificial  rite  is  so  infrequent  in  Greek  religion  that  it 
commands  special  attention  wherever  it  is  found.  The 
Corybantic  rites  of  Samothrace  show  that  Hecate  of  this  place 
was  closely  akin  to  the  goddess  of  the  same  name,  who  was 
worshipped  with  Zeus  Panamerius  at  Lagina  in  Caria,  the 
chief  centre  of  her  cult  in  Asia  Minor.^^^  Strabo^^'  classes  her 
cult  as  Phrygian-Thracian.  Farnell^^^  comments  on  the  close 
connection  between  Artemis  Pheraea  of  Thessaly  and  this 
Hecate  and  suggests  Thrace  as  the  home  of  the  cult.  Some 
supporting  evidence  for  this  opinion  may  be  obtained  by 
comparing  with  the  statement  that  dogs  were  offered  to  Hecate 
in  Samothrace  a  remark  of  Sextus  Empiricus/^^  that  the 
Thracians  used  this  animal  for  food. 

In  Lemnos  there  were  similar  Corybantic  rites  in  honour  of 
Bendis,  who  is  thus  brought  into  relationship  with  Samo- 
thracian  Cybele  and  her  reflex  Hecate,  as  well  as  with  Cretan 
Rhea.^^^  This  "Great  Goddess"  of  Lemnos  is  Thracian 
Bendis,  the  fierce  huntress  of  the  two  spears  and  the  double 
worship,  "of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth,"  who  received 
human  sacrifice  in  her  own  country."^  She  entered  the  Greek 
pantheon  as  Thracian  Artemis,  closely  allied  to  Cybele  and 
Hecate.  She  has  a  counterpart  in  <I>g)o-<^o/3o?,  from  whom  the 
Thracian  Bosphorus  was  named,  a  goddess  in  whose  rites  the 
torch  has  a  conspicuous  place.^^^ 

"0  Schol.  Aristoph.  Pax,  276, 
»i  Ovid,  Trist.  1,  el.  9.  19;  Liv.  38.  41. 
"2  V.  supra,  n.  77. 

"'  Strabo,  p.  473.     Cf.  rites  of  Artemis-Hecate,  Orph.  Argon.  905. 
»»  Farnell,  op.  cit.  2.  pp.  504  S. 
"sSext.  Empir.  (Bekker),  174. 

*'^  Strabo,  p.  466:  iiffre  Kal  ra  iepa  TpbTrov  riva   KOivoiroielffdai  ravrd  re  (re- 
ferring to  the  Corybantic  rites  of  Crete)  /cat  twv  ^a/jwdpi^Kuv  Kal  rk  iv  h.-fiixv(i>. 
"'  Hesych.  s.v.  Al\oyxos- 
>i8  Schol.  Plato,  Republic,  327.     Cf.  Mommsen,  Heort.  p.  488. 


27 

Thus  a  long  list  may  be  «iade  out  of  female  deities  who  show 
the  general  characteristics  of  Phrygian  Cybele:  the  Lydian 
Mother,  Cybebe  or  Cybele;  Rhea  of  Crete;  Hecate  of  Samo- 
thrace  and  Lagina;  Bendis  of  Thrace  and  Lemnos;  Cappadocian 
Ma;^^^  Britomartis,  or  Dictynna,  of  Crete,  who  is  Aphaea  at 
Aegina;^-°  the  Syrian  goddess  of  Hierapolis;^^^  several  forms  of 
Artemis, — of  the  Tauric  Chersonese,  of  Brauron,  of  Laodicea,^^^ 
of  Ephesus,^^^  Artemis-Aphrodite  of  Persia.^^^  The  con- 
ception common  to  all  these  is  that  of  a  nature-goddess,  whose 
rites  are  orgiastic,  and  whose  protection,  as  that  of  a  woman- 
warrior,  is  claimed  for  the  state.  It  is  probably  correct  to 
assume  that  Artemis  Tauropolos,  to  whom  Diodorus^^^  says 
that  the  Amazons  offered  sacrifice,  is  a  form  of  Cybele, 
presumably  Tauric  Artemis.  Therefore  this  name  should  be 
added  to  the  list.  It  deserves  special  prominence,  because  the 
Amazons  are  shown  to  have  been  her  votaries.  In  connection 
with  Aphrodite,  who,  like  Artemis,  although  less  frequently, 
was  identified  with  the  Mother,  Arnobius^^^  relates  that  in  a 
frenzy  of  devotion  to  this  deity  the  daughter  of  a  Gallus  cut 
off  her  breasts,  a  story  strikingly  reminiscent  of  the  tradition 
of  single-breasted  Amazons,  and  also  suggestive  of  the  fact 

"'  An  inscription  from  Byzantium  (Mordtmann  u.  Ddthier,  Epig.  v.  Byz. 
Taf.  6-8)  reads:  Mijrpi  Qedv  Ma.  Cf.  Steph.  Byz.  s.v.  Mdtrrai/po;  Strabo,  pp. 
535,  537;  Paus.  3.  16,  8;  Dio  Cass.  36B,  Cf.  article  by  J.  H.  Wright,  Harv. 
Studies  in  Class.  Philol.  6.  64,  on  the  worship  of  Ma;  Mijv. 

120  Paus.  2.  30,  3. 

"1  Pseudo-Lucian,  De  Dea  Syria.  The  torch  belonged  to  her  festival  (op. 
cit.  49). 

'22  Pausanias  (3.  16,  8)  identifies  Artemis  Taurica,  Artemis  Brauronia,  and 
the  goddess  of  Laodicea  in  Sjoia.  He  also  says  that  the  original  image  of 
this  cult  was  claimed  by  the  Laodiceans,  the  Cappadocians,  the  neighbours  of 
the  latter  on  the  borders  of  the  Euxine,  the  Lydians — who  called  it  Anaiitis — , 
the  Spartans — who  called  it  Orthia. 

'2'  Cf.  ch.  Ill,  Ephesian  Artemis. 

»2<  Paus.  7.  6,  6. 

>«  Diod.  Sic,  2.  46. 

>««  Arnob.  Adv.  Nat.  5.  7. 


28 

that   there   were    Galli    in    certain    forms   of    Aphrodite's 
worship.^-^ 

The  cult  of  Cybele  seems  to  have  been  an  indigenous  religion 
in  Phrygia  and  Lydia,'^^  duplicated  in  almost  all  its  essential 
details  by  that  of  Cretan  Rhea.  Since  the  Cretan  rites  of  the 
Mother,  in  all  probability,  belonged  originally  to  the  Eteo- 
cretan  population  of  the  island,  a  non-Hellenic  folk  apparently, 
who  seem  to  have  been  akin  to  the  Asiatic  folk  not  far  away,^^^ 
Rhea-Cybele  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  deity  of  a  common 
stock  in  Crete,  Phrygia,  and  Lydia.  From  the  circumstance 
that  the  double-axe  is  a  religious  symbol  which  occurs  fre- 
quently wherever  there  are  remains  of  the  pre-Hellenic,  or 
"Minoan,"  civilisation  of  Crete  and  of  that  thence  derived, 
the  "Mycenaean,"  and  from  the  fact  that  in  historic  times  this 
appears  as  the  regular  symbol  of  various  forms  of  the  Asiatic 
Mother,^^°  there  is  ground  for  the  inference  that  the  stock  with 
whom  the  worship  of  Rhea-Cybele  was  deeply  rooted  was  that 
which  predominated  in  Crete  and  the  other  lands  where  the 
same  brilliant  culture  flourished  before  the  rise  of  the  Hellenic 
states.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  battle-axe  of  the  Amazons 
is  this  very  weapon,  but  the  point  may  not  be  pressed  in  this 
context.  Herodotus,^^^  it  has  been  seen,  asserted  out  of  his 
knowledge  as  an  initiate,  that  the  mysteries  of  Samothrace 
were  of  Pelasgic  origin.  He  undoubtedly  conceived  of  the 
Pelasgians  as  a  non-Hellenic  race  who  preceded  the  Hellenes 
in  the  occupation  of  Greece,  and  therefore  we  must  interpret 
his  remarks  about  the  Cabiria  as  meaning  that  these  rites  were 

>*'  This  comes  out  strongly  in  the  rites  at  Bambyce.     V.  supra,  n.  77. 

1"  Cf.  Strabo,  10.  pp.  469,  472;  12.  p.  567,  wherein  the  names  associated  with 
the  cult  are  traced  to  Phrygian  localities.  Diod.  Sic.  (3.  58)  derives  the  name 
of  the  goddess  from  a  place  in  Phrygia.  On  Cybele  in  Lydia  cf.  Herod.  5.  102 ; 
Paus.  7.  17,  9-10. 

»23  Strabo,  10.  p.  478.     V.  supra,  n.  79. 

""  Kliigmann,  op.  cit.  p.  529. 

131  Herod.  2.  51. 


29 

instituted  by  a  pre-Hellenic  people.^^^  it  is  tempting  to 
identify  this  people  with  the  pre-Ionic  inhabitants  of  Samos, 
who,  according  to  Pausanias,^^'  settled  Samothrace.  Thus 
the  worshippers  of  Cybele  in  Samothrace  would  be  shown  to 
be  akin  to  the  stock  who  honoured  her  in  Crete/^''  Lydia,  and 
Phrygia. 

This  Mother,  whose  worship  was  widely  spread  under  her 
own  name  and  many  others,  was  revered  by  the  Amazons: — ■ 
in  the  primitive  baetylic  form  of  the  rites  of  Pessinus;  as 
Mother  of  the  Gods  in  Samothrace,  where  she  was  identified 
both  with  Cabiric  Demeter  and  with  Hecate;  as  Artemis 
Tauropolos,  or  the  Tauric  Virgin,  who  was  probably  a  goddess 
of  the  Thracians.^3^ 

"«  For  the  views  of  Herodotus  on  the  Pelasgi  c/.  2.  56-58;  7.  94;  8.  44.  J.  L. 
Myres  has  an  important  article,  "The  History  of  the  Pelasgian  Theory,"  in 
Joum.  Hellen.  Studies,  27  (1907). 

1"  Paus.  7.  4,  3. 

iM  The  central  point  of  the  mysteries  of  Samothrace  seems  to  have  been  the 
worship  of  Demeter  as  the  mother  of  Plutus.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this 
son  was  born  in  Crete  (Hes.  Theog.  970) . 

1"  Cf.  Herod.  4.  103  and  the  conception  of  the  goddess  on  which  Euripides 
builds  his  Iphigeneia  among  the  Taurians.  Possibly  the  word  Tai/p^TroXoj  is 
to  be  connected  with  Tauroholium,  the  mystic  baptism  in  blood,  which  was  orig- 
inally connected  with  Syrian  cults,  especially  with  that  of  Mithras.  In  the 
first  half  of  the  second  century  A.D.  it  was  introduced  at  Rome  as  a  feature  of 
the  worship  of  Magna  Mater.  On  the  Taurobolia  and  the  similar  Criobolia  cf. 
Prudent.  Peristeph.  10.  1011-1050. 


CHAPTER  III 

Ephesian  Artemis 

The  magnificent  temple  of  which  Christian  writers  speak 
as  that  of  "the  great  goddess  whom  all  Asia  and  the  world 
worshippeth"  replaced  the  earlier  and  more  famous  shrine 
which  burned  to  the  ground  on  the  night  of  Alexander's  birth. 
Two  hundred  and  twenty  years  had  been  spent  in  the  process  of 
building  the  first  temple,  and  when  this  was  destroyed  the 
Ephesians  at  once  began  the  construction  of  another  even 
more  costly.^^^  The  older  Artemisium  is  said  to  have  possessed 
among  its  treasures  four  statues  of  Amazons  executed  by  four 
of  the  most  distinguished  sculptors  of  the  fifth  century, 
Phidias,  Polyclitus,  Cresilas,  and  Phradmon,^^^  The  tradition 
is  only  one  of  many  w^hich  indicate  very  close  connection 
between  the  Amazons  and  this  sanctuary. 

The  Ephesians  themselves  looked  upon  their  Artemisium 
as  one  of  the  most  sacred  spots  in  the  whole  world.  Tacitus^^^ 
remarks:  "Primi  omnium  Ephesii  adiere,  memorantes  non, 
ut  vulgus  crederat,  Dianam  atque  Apollinem  Delo  genitos: 
esse  apud  se  Cenchrium  amnem,  lucum  Ortygiam,  ubi  Latonam 
partu  gravidam  et  oleae,  quae  tum  etiam  maneat,  adnisam, 
edidisse  ea  numina."  This  seems  to  mean  that  the  olive  of 
Ephesian  Artemis  was  set  up  against  the  palm  of  Delian  Apollo. 
Something  of  this  kind  happened  historically,  as  Thucydides^^^ 
shows:  "There  was  of  old  a  great  gathering  of  the  lonians  at 

i3«  On  the  history  of  the  Artemisium  cf.  Plin.  N.  H.  36.  14;  Mela,  1.  17;  Ptol. 
5;  Plut.  Alex. 

"'This  is  PHny's  story  (A".  H.  34.  53).  Students  of  Greek  art  are  not 
unanimous  in  believing  that  four  statues  were  executed.  For  a  well  arranged 
bibliography  on  the  question  cf.  Overbeck,  Gesch.  d.  griech.  Plastik,  1.  pp.  514  £f. 
and  Notes,  p.  527. 

"8  Tac.  Annales,  3.  61. 

"9  Thuc.  3.  104. 

30 


31 

Delos.  .  .  .  They  went  thither  to  the  theoric  assembly  with 
their  wives  and  children,  just  as  the  lonians  now  gather  at  the 
Ephesia." 

Greek  Ephesus  owed  its  origin  to  the  Ionic  Immigration 
and  was  reckoned  among  the  twelve  cities  of  Ionia,  yet  in  the 
band  of  colonists  who  started  out  from  the  Prytaneum  at 
Athens  the  lonians  were  few,  although  the  expedition  is  desig- 
nated by  their  name.  Joined  with  them  were  the  Abantes  of 
Euboea,  the  Orchomenian  Minyae  and  the  Cadmeans  of 
Boeotia,  the  Dryopes,  Phocians,  Molossians,  the  Arcadian 
Pelasgians,  the  Dorian  Epidaurians,  and  other  tribes  whom 
Herodotus  does  not  mention  by  name."°  It  may  be  that  the 
Ionian  strain  was  less  strong  at  Ephesus  than  in  some  of  the 
other  cities  of  the  group,  since  this  place  and  Colophon  were 
the  only  ones  of  the  twelve  that  did  not  take  part  at  the 
Apaturia,  the  great  clan  festival  of  the  lonians.^^^  Yet  the 
Codrids,  who  figured  prominently  as  conductors  of  the 
undertaking,  were  lonians,^^^  and  Androclus,  son  of  Codrus 
himself,  was  by  some^^^  believed  to  have  been  the  founder  of 
Ephesus.  Pausanias  was  told  that  he  fell  in  battle  against  the 
Carians  and  was  shown  his  tomb  at  Ephesus.'^ 

Pausanias^*^  represents  Androclus,  whom  he  calls  "king  of 
the  lonians  who  sailed  to  Ephesus,"  the  founder  of  the  Ionic 
city,  but  he  believes  the  shrine  of  Artemis  there  to  be  very 
ancient.  He  states  with  certainty  that  it  antedated  the  Ionic 
Immigration  by  many  years,  being  older  even  than  the 
oracular  shrine  of  Apollo  at  Didymi.  He  attributes  its 
establishment   to   autochthons,  Coresus,^"^®  who   was   son  of 

"» Herod.  1.  142,  146.     Cf.  Paus.  7.  2,  1^. 

1^1  Herod.  1.  147.  On  the  Apaturia  cf.  Ephor.  ap.  Harpocr.  s.v.;  Strabo,  9. 
p.  393. 

1*2  The  Codrids  were  refugees  who  sought  shelter  at  Athens,  ha\-ing  been 
driven  out  of  the  Peloponnese  by  the  Dorians  (Paus.  7.  1,  9). 

i«  Strabo,  12  and  14.     Cf.  Paus.  7.  2,  6  ff. 

1"  Paus.  7.  2,  9. 

i«  Paus.  7.  2,  6-8. 

i«  Herodotus  (5.  100)  gives  Coressus  as  a  place-name  in  Ephesus. 


32 

Cayster,  and  Ephesus.  He  says  that  the  pre-Ionic  inhabitants 
of  the  city  were  Leleges  and  Lydians — with  a  predominance  of 
the  latter— and  that,  although  Androclus  drove  out  of  the 
land  all  those  whom  he  found  in  the  upper  city,  he  did  not 
interfere  with  those  who  dwelt  about  the  sanctuary.  By 
giving  and  receiving  pledges  he  put  these  on  a  footing  of 
neutrality.  These  remarks  of  Pausanias  find  confirmation 
in  the  form  of  the  cult  in  historic  times,  which,  being  in  all 
its  essentials  non-Hellenic,  admits  of  plausible  interpretation 
only  as  an  indigenous  worship  taken  over  by  the  Greek  settlers. 

The  Artemisium  at  Ephesus  was  pre-eminently  a  shrine 
which  gave  rights  of  sanctuary  to  suppliants,  a  fact  indicative 
of  a  wide  difference  between  this  goddess  and  the  Greek 
Artemis.^^'^  Those  who  invoked  the  protection  of  the  sanc- 
tuary appeared  with  olive-boughs  twined  with  fillets  of  wool."^ 

The  Amazons  are  noticed  in  legend  as  founders  of  the 
shrine  and  as  fugitives  claiming  its  asylum.  Pindar^''^  told 
that  they  established  the  sanctuary  on  their  way  to  Athens 
to  war  against  Theseus.  Possibly  this  is  the  account  followed 
by  Callimachus^^"  in  the  lines  telling  how  the  Amazons  set  up 
the  ySpeVa?  of  Artemis  "in  the  shade  of  an  oak  with  goodly 
trunk^^^  which  grew  in  Ephesus  by  the  sea."  Justin^^^  states 
the  tradition  that  the  city  itself  was  founded  by  the  Amazons. 
Pausanias^^^  maintains  that  Pindar  was  incorrect  in  his 
assertion  that  the  shrine  was  founded  by  the  Amazons.     He 

"'  i(rv\ov  di  ix^vei  rh  iepbv  Kal  vOv  Kal  irpdrepov  (Strabo,  p.  641).  The  shrine 
of  Aphrodite  Stratonikis  at  Smyrna  was  also  a  place  of  asylum.  Neither  Aphro- 
dite nor  Artemis  appears  in  such  capacity  in  purely  Hellenic  cults. 

i«  EL  Mag.  402.  20. 

I"  Find.  ap.  Paus.  7.  2,  7. 

160  Callim.  in  Dian.  237  ff. 

1"  The  Greek  is  (prfyQ  inr  einrpifjivip.  The  words  hardly  bear  Farnell's  con- 
struction (op.  cit.  2.  p.  482),  "in  the  trunk  of  a  tree." 

162  Just.  2.  4.  So  also  Hyg.  Fab.  237.  Cf.  St.  Basil  (,s.v.  'E^ecros)  and  Eust, 
(ad  Dion.  823),  who  give  'Ajuafci  as  daughter  of  Ephesus  and  mother  of  the 
Amazons.     Cf.  Cram.  ^.  O.  1.  80. 

1"  Paus.  7.  2,  7-8. 


33 

says  that  long  before  they  started  on  their  Attic  campaign 
they  had  twice  taken  refuge  at  the  Artemisium,  once  from 
Heracles,  and,  earlier  still,  from  Dionysus.  Tacitus,^^^  contin- 
uing his  quotation  of  claims  put  forward  by  the  Ephesians 
themselves,  says:  "Mox  Liberum  patrem,  bello  victorem, 
supplicibus  Amazonum,  quae  aram  insederant,  ignovisse. 
Auctam  hinc  concessu  Herculis,  cum  Lydia  poteretur,  caeri- 
moniam  templo."  According  to  this  the  Amazons  inaugurated 
the  custom  of  seeking  asylum  at  the  Artemisium,  and  to  them 
therefore  was  due  the  conspicuous  part  which  the  shrine  played 
as  a  place  of  sanctuary.  It  is  reasonable  to  infer  from  these 
various  sources  that  in  the  holy  records  and  traditions  of  the 
Ephesian  temple  the  Amazons  were  prominent.  Even 
Pausanias,  who  denies  that  the  Amazons  founded  the  shrine, 
ascribes  to  their  fame,  since  they  were  reported  its  founders, 
a  large  measure  of  the  prestige  which  belonged  to  the  cult  of 
Ephesian  Artemis  all  over  the  Greek  world.  He  mentions 
this  first  in  his  list  of  reasons  for  the  great  reputation  of  the 
shrine,  placing  it  on  a  par  with  the  extreme  antiquity  of  the 
sanctuary.  Secondary  to  these  two  he  mentions  the  wealth 
and  influence  of  the  city  and  the  epiphany  of  the  goddess 
there.^^^  We  must,  indeed,  believe  that  the  Amazons  stood  in 
intimate  relation  to  the  cult  of  Ephesian  Artemis.  Yet  in 
historical  times  there  was  a  regulation  which  forbade  women 
to  enter  the  sanctuary.^^® 

Apart  from  her  name  it  would  be  difficult  to  recognise  the 
Greek  Artemis  in  the  deity  of  Ephesus.  The  cult  statue 
showed  her  in  form  at  once  primitive  and  Oriental.^^^  It  was 
carved  out  of  a  block  of  wood,^^^  shaped  like  a  herm  in  the 

»<  Tac.  I.  c.  (Ann.  3.  61). 
»66  Paus.  4.  31,  8. 

'5^  Artemid.  Oneirocr.  4,  4.      Cf.,  however,  Aristoph.  Nub.  599-600. 
"^  On  the  statue  cf.  Aristoph.  Nub.  590;  Aelian,  Hist.  Animal.  12.  9;  Strabo. 
12.  p.  534;  13.  p.  650;  Autocrates,  Tympanistis. 

>5'  The  wood  was  variously  described,  as  beech,  cedar,  elm,  ebony,  grape. 

4 


34 

lower  part,  showing  the  feet.  The  torso  was  that  of  a  woman 
of  many  breasts.  The  type  depicted  on  coins^^^  is  that  of  a 
draped  woman  of  many  breasts,  wearing  a  turret-crown  on 
her  head  and  resting  either  arm  on  a  twisted  column.  She 
was  served  by  eunuch  priests,  called  Megabyzi,  and  by 
maidens.  Presumably  these  priests  are  the  same  as  the 
Essenes,  whom  Pausanias  mentions  as  servitors  for  one  year, 
who  were  bound  by  strict  rules  of  chastity  and  required  to 
submit  to  ascetic  regulations  of  dietary  and  ablution.^^"  The 
virgins  associated  with  them  passed  through  three  stages: 
Postulant,  Priestess,  Past-Priestess.^^^  There  is  nothing  to 
indicate  the  length  of  their  term  of  service.  The  Megabyzi 
were  held  in  the  highest  possible  honour,^^^  as  were  the  Galli  at 
Pessinus. 

This  goddess  of  the  turret-crown  and  of  many  breasts,  whose 
shrine  required  the  attendance  of  the  Megabyzi,  is  certainly  a 
form  of  Cybele.  If  we  were  guided  solely  by  the  remark  of 
Pausanias^^^  that  the  sanctuary  was  founded  by  the  pre-Ionic 
people  of  the  region,  that  is,  by  Leleges  and  Lydians,  among 
whom  the  latter  were  more  numerous,  we  should  expect  to 
find  the  Lydian  Mother  worshipped  here.  The  name  Artemis, 
under  which  the  goddess  appears,  indicates  that  the  Greek 
colonists  appropriated  the  cult  which  they  found.  The 
Lydian  Mother  was  evidently  identical  with  Magna  Mater  of 
Phrygia.     Yet  the  Ephesian   goddess,   who   is   the   Mother 

1"  V.  coins  of  Ephesus,  Head,  Hist.  Num. 

«•  On  the  Essenes  cf.  Paus.  8.  13,  1,  where  their  rule  of  life  is  compared  to 
that  of  the  servitors  of  Artemis  Hymnia  at  Orchomenus  in  Arcadia.  The 
Talmvd  mentions  a  sect  called  Essenes,  noted  for  their  asceticism. 

1"  Pint.  An  Sen.  sit  ger.  Resp.  p.  795D.  |The  words  are  MeXXi^pT/./I^pTj,  Hapi^pr}. 

i«  The  word  Megabyzus  occurs  frequently  in  Herodotus  as  a  proper  name 
among  the  Persians.  Herod.  3.  70,  81,  82,  153,  160;  4.  43;  7.  82.  121.  This  is 
probably  the  basis  of  Farnell's  statement  (op.  cit.  2.  p.  481),  that  the  use  of  the 
word  at  Ephesus  points  to  Persian  influence,  which,  according  to  Plutarch 
(Lj/s.  3)  was  strong  here.  Cf.  Fairbanks,  Greek  Religion,  App.  1.  Strabo,  p.- 
641. 

163  Paus.  7.  2,  7-8. 


35 

under  the  name  Artemis,  is  in  her  cult  image  neither  Cybele 
as  we  know  her — whether  under  baetylic  form  or  in  the  Hkeness 
of  a  matron^^^ — nor  Hellenic  Artemis.  Artemidorus/^^  the 
student  of  dreams,  says  that  peculiar  sanctity  attached  to  a 
particular  type  which  he  defines  as  that  of  Artemis  Ephesia, 
Artemis  of  Perge,  and  the  goddess  called  Eleuthera  among  the 
Lycians.  It  is  tempting  to  ascribe  to  the  mysterious  Leleges 
the  differences  which  separate  the  type  of  Ephesia  and  the 
other  two  from  Cybele. 

All  that  Pausanias^^®  tells  about  these  Leleges  at  Ephesus 
is  that  they  were  a  branch  of  the  Carians.  Herodotus^^^  says 
that  the  Leleges  were  a  people  who  in  old  times  dwelt  in  the 
islands  of  the  Aegean  and  were  subject  to  Minos  of  Crete; 
that  they  were  driven  from  their  homes  by  the  Dorians  and 
lonians,  after  which  they  took  refuge  in  Caria  and  were  named 
Carians.  It  seems  reasonable  to  give  weight  to  the  remarks  of 
Herodotus  on  this  subject,  since  he  was  a  Carian-born  Ionian. 
We  should  infer  then  that  the  Leleges  of  Ephesus,  whom 
Pausanias  calls  a  branch  of  the  Carians,  were  closely  connected 
with  the  island-people  who  were  once  subject  to  Minos,  Both 
Herodotus^^^  and  Pausanias^®^  say  that  the  Lycians  were  of 
Cretan  origin.  It  is  therefore  not  strange  that  at  Ephesus 
and  in  Lycia  the  same  type  of  goddess  was  worshipped. 
Tradition^'^*'   also   connected   Pamphylia   w^ith   Crete,    which 

1"  Apart  from  the  baetyl  of  Pessinus  Cybele  was  regularly  conceived  as  a 
beautiful  matron.  Cf.  statue  in  Metroiim  at  Athens.  For  references  v.  supra, 
n.  105. 

1'*  Artem.  Oneirocr.  2.  35. 

>««  Paus.  7.  2,  8. 

"^  Herod.  1.  171.  The  theory  stated  here  is  certainly  that  which  Herodotus 
himself  holds.  He  says  that  it  was  the  Cretans'  story  that  the  Carians  claimed 
to  be  autochthonous.  Their  tradition  emphasised  their  Idnship  with  the  Lydians 
and  Mysians. 

168  Herod.  1.  173. 

1"  Paus,  7.  3,  7. 

•""  The  older  name  of  Pamphylia  was  Mopsopia.  Cf.  stories  of  Mopsus, 
son  of  Cretan  Rhacius,  Paus.  7.  3,  2.     Cf.  Mela,  1;  Plin.  5.  26. 


36 

may  account  for  the  presence  of  the  type  in  Perge.^^^  An 
inscription^^^  which  dates  probably  from  about  the  third 
century  B.C.  gives  direct  evidence  of  association  between 
Crete  and  Ephesian  Artemis.  It  is  the  dedication  of  a  votive 
offering :  "  To  the  Healer  of  diseases,  to  Apollo,  Giver  of  Light 
to  mortals,  Eutyches  has  set  up  in  votive  offering  (a  statue  of) 
the  Cretan  Lady  of  Ephesus,  the  Light-Bearer  {avaaaav  ^E(f>€<Tov 
J^prja-iav  ^aeacftopov) ."  The  inscription  suggests  the  words 
from  the  Oedipus  Rex:^"^^  "  Lyceian  Lord,  scatter,  I  pray  thee, 
for  our  aid  thine  unconquerable  darts  from  thy  gold-twisted 
bowstring  and  with  them  the  fire-bearing  rays  of  Artemis  with 
which  she  rusheth  over  the  Lycian  mountains."  The  Cretan 
Light-Bearer  may  easily  be  the  fire-bearing  Artemis  of  Lycia. 
The  epithet  Av/ccio?  used  of  Apollo  gives  the  form  Avkcm  for 
Artemis.  An  Artemis  by  this  name  was  worshipped  at 
Troezen.^^"*  The  local  exegetes  were  unable  to  explain  the 
application  of  the  epithet.  Therefore  Pausanias  conjectures 
that  it  means,  either  that  Hippolytus  had  thus  commemorated 
the  extermination  of  wolves  at  Troezen,  or  that  AvKeia  was  a 
cult  epithet  among  the  Amazons,  to  whom  Hippolytus  was 
akin  through  his  mother.  It  seems  highly  probable  that 
Artemis  AvKeia  was  the  goddess  of  Ephesus,  Perge,  and 
Lycia,  who  was  known  as  the  Cretan  Lady  of  Ephesus. 

Eleuthera,  the  special  name  by  which  this  Artemis  was 
worshipped  among  the  Lycians  suggests  Ariadne,  whom  Ovid^^^ 
calls  Libera}'^  The  name  belongs  to  her  as  the  wife  of 
Dionysus  in  Crete.  Dionysus  appears  in  the  legends  of  the 
Artemisium  as  one  of  the  foes  of  the  Amazons  who  drove  them 

"1  On  the  yearly  feast  of  Artemis  Pergaea  and  her  mendicant  priests,  sug- 
gestive of  those  of  Cybele,  v.  Farnell,  op.  cit.  2.  p.  482. 

1"  C.  I.  G.  6797. 

1"  Soph.  Oed.  R.  204-208. 

i'<  Paus.  2.  31,  4-5. 

i'»  Ovid,  Fasti,  3.  513. 

»'«  Cicero  {_Verr.  4.  48)  uses  Libera  as  the  name  of  Proserpine.  This  doubtless 
is  due  to  the  close  relation  between  Demeter  and  Dionysus. 


37 

to  this  asylum.^"  Perhaps  the  idea  of  hostihty  on  his  part 
is  to  be  explained  by  the  rites  in  his  honour  at  the  annual 
festival  of  the  Scierea  at  Alea.  These  required  that  women 
should  be  scourged  at  his  altar.^^^  In  this  there  is  reminiscence 
of  the  Egyptian  mournings  for  Osiris,  which  were  marked  with 
practices  of  self-affliction,  and  Osiris  suggests  Atys,  the  com- 
panion of  the  Asiatic  Mother.^^^  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  Dionysus  was  closely  connected  with  Cybele.  The 
musical  system  by  which  his  worship  was  characterised  was 
Phrygian,^^"  and  Euripides  in  the  Bacchae  completely  identifies 
his  rites  with  those  of  the  Mother.  We  hear  also  of  men  who 
marched  in  procession  at  his  festivals  with  cymbals  and 
tambourines.^^^  Considering  the  fact  that  at  Ephesus  and  at 
Pessinus  there  were  eunuch  priests,  also  that  Euripides^^^ 
depicts  Dionysus  as  a  womanish  person  who  forces  Pentheus 
to  assume  woman's  garments,  that  elsewhere^^^  the  god  is  called 
man  and  woman,  and,  in  addition  to  this,  that  there  was  a 
legend^^*  that  he  received  woman's  attire  from  Rhea  at  Cybela, 
there  is  a  strong  presumption  in  favour  of  the  hypothesis  that 
Dionysus  touches  the  cult  of  the  Great  Mother  and  that  of 

i"In  addition  to  the  passages  already  cited  (Paus.  7.  2,  7-8;  Tac.  Ann.  3. 
61)  0.  Plut.  Quaest.  Gr.  56.  The  story  of  Dionysus  and  the  Amazons  appears 
also  in  art.     Cf.  Arch.  Ztg.  1845,  pi.  30,  showing  sarcophagus  from  Cortona. 

"8  Paus.  8.  23,  1.  The  chief  temples  of  the  place  as  described  by  Pausanias 
were  of  Artemis  Ephesia,  of  Athena  Alea,  or  Hippia  {cf.  Paus.  8.  47,  1),  of  Dio- 
nysus. Possibly  the  flagellation  of  women  in  the  Dionysiac  mysteries  is  rep- 
resented on  some  frescoes  recently  discovered  in  a  Roman  mansion  near 
Pompeii  (Nation,  Dec.  1,  1910,  p.  534).  V.  Am.  Jour.  Arch.  15  (1911),  p. 
567. 

"9  Farnell  beUeves  that  Ariadne  was  originally  a  Cretan  goddess,  who  may 
easily  have  been  identified  with  Cybele,  Bendis,  etc.  {op.  cit.  2.  p.  473).  Pos- 
sibly the  legend  of  Dionysus  and  Ariadne  grew  out  of  the  Cretan  cult  in  which 
he  was  her  paredros. 

"0  Aristot.  Polit.  8.  7,  9;  Eur.  Bacch.  58. 

181  Herod.  4.  79;  Athenaeus,  10.  p.  445. 

182  Eur.  Bacch.  821  ff. 

183  Aristid.  Or.  4.  p.  28;  Aeschyl.  Fr.  Edoni  ap.  Aristoph.  Thesm.  135. 

184  ApoUod.  3.  5,  1. 


38 

Ephesian  Artemis  in  some  way  associated  with  the  strange 
Oriental  idea  of  confusion  of  sex.^^^  If  this  interpretation  is 
correct,  it  probably  applies  also  to  the  rites  of  Ariadne,  for  at 
Athens  in  the  feast  of  the  Oschophoria  two  youths  dressed  as 
women  conducted  a  chorus  in  honour  of  Dionysus  and 
Ariadne.^^^ 

The  Ephesian  legend  of  Heracles  and  the  Amazons^^^ 
probably  indicates  a  connection  between  the  cult  of  Ephesian 
Artemis  and  that  of  the  Lydian  Heracles.  This  cult  of 
Heracles  is  reflected  in  Greek  legend  as  the  adventure  of  the 
hero  at  the  court  of  Omphale.  The  story  runs  thus:^^^ 
Heracles  was  compelled  to  submit  to  slavery  to  this  Lydian 
queen  in  order  that  he  might  recover  from  the  madness  which 
punished  him  for  his  murder  of  Eurytus.  Omphale,  who  was 
daughter  of  Dardanus  and  widow  of  Tmolus,  became  enam- 
oured of  her  captive  and  married  him.  He  gave  up  to  her  his 
weapons  and  received  in  return  woman's  dress  and  the  distaff. 
He  is  represented  sitting  among  the  maidens  and  allowing  the 
queen  to  beat  him  with  her  sandals  whenever  he  has  erred  in 
spinning.  The  names  Dardanus  and  Tmolus  suggest,  the 
former.  Mount  Ida  and  Samothrace,  the  latter,  Lydia.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  Pausanias^^^  identifies  this  Oriental 
Heracles  with  the  Idaean  Dactyl  of  that  name.  Omphale  is 
presumably  Magna  Mater,  and  probably  the  detail  of  the  gift 
of  the  weapons^^°  to  her  points  to  the  fact  that  this  goddess  was 
warlike  and  political  in  Asia  Minor.  In  this  legend,  as  also  in 
that    which    connects    the    Amazons    with    Dionysus,    there 

•**  C/.  Atys  as  notha  mulier,  Catnll.  Atys,  27;  Adonis,  male  and  female, 
Orph.  Hymn,  56. 

1**  Plut.  Thes.  23.  On  the  rites  of  Ariadne-Aphrodite  at  Amathus  v.  Farnell, 
op.  cit.  2.  p.  634.  Possibly  some  connection  with  Dionysus  is  implied  in  the 
strange  epithet  of  Ephesian  Artemis,  'E\ova-ia,  Hesych.  s.v. 

"'  Paus.  I.  c.  (7.  2,  7-8);  Tac.  I.  c.  (3.  61). 

i8»  Ovid,  Fasti,  2.  305  ff.;  Apollod.  1.  9;  2.  7;  Diod.  Sic.  4;  Prop.  3.  11,  17. 

1"  V.  supra,  n.  95. 

I'o  The  battle-axe  receives  special  mention.     Cf.  double-axe  of  the  Amazons. 


39 

appears  the  peculiar  Asiatic  idea  of  sex-confusion. ^^^  Granted 
a  close  connection  between  the  Oriental  Heracles  and  the 
Amazons  at  Ephesus/^^  the  supposition  does  not  seem  auda- 
cious that  the  most  widely  spread  of  all  the  Hellenic  traditions 
concerning  the  Amazons,  that  of  the  attack  by  Heracles  on 
Themiscyra,  owed  its  origin  to  a  cult  saga  typified  by  that  of 
Ephesus. 

To  summarise:  There  was  close  connection  between  the 
Amazons  and  Ephesian  Artemis,  a  type  of  the  Mother  showing 
Cretan-Lycian  afiiliations.  Their  place  in  the  cult  gave  rise 
to  the  two  local  sagas  which  emphasise  the  Oriental  idea  of 
sex-confusion. 

"1  In  a  work  now  out  of  date  (the  Lydiaca  of  Th.  Mencke,  Berlin,  1843)  there 
is  valuable  information  on  this  subject.     V.  especially  ch.  8.  p.  22. 

i«  The  words  of  Tacitus  (I.  c.)  representing  the  tradition  at  Ephesus  itself, 
are  very  important:  "Auctam  hinc  concessu  Herculis,  cum  Lydia  poteretur, 
caerimoniam  templo."  Heraclides  Ponticus  (Fr.  34),  supposing  'E0€<roj  and 
i<p€?vai  to  be  etymologically  akin,  derives  the  name  of  the  city  from  the  attack 
which  Heracles  made  on  the  Amazons  from  Mycale  to  Pitane. 


CHAPTER  IV 

Artemis  Astrateia  and  Apollo  Amazonius 

Pausanias^^^  says  that  there  were  two  ways  of  accounting 
for  the  name  of  the  town  Pyrrhichus  in  southern  Greece.  One 
derived  it  from  Pyrrhus,  son  of  Achilles,  the  other,  from 
Pyrrhichus,  a  god  of  "the  so-called  Curetes."  There  was  also 
a  local  story  that  the  town  was  settled  by  Silenus  from  Malea. 
Pausanias  adds  that  the  people  about  Malea  explained  how 
Silenus  came  to  be  called  Pyrrhichus  also,  but  he  does  not 
give  the  explanation.  He  concludes  his  remarks  about  the 
town  with  these  words :  "  In  the  market-place  there  is  a  well  of 
water  which  they  believe  was  given  to  them  by  Silenus.  There 
would  be  a  dearth  of  water,  if  this  well  should  fail.  The  gods 
who  have  sanctuaries  in  their  land  are  Artemis,  surnamed 
Astrateia,  because  the  Amazons  here  ceased  their  forward 
march,  and  Apollo  Amazonius.  The  statues  are  both  xoana, 
and  they  say  that  they  were  set  up  by  the  women  from  the 
Thermodon." 

Thus  the  sole  mention  of  these  two  cult-epithets,  pre- 
sumably of  great  value  to  the  investigator  of  the  Amazon 
tradition,  occurs  in  a  passage  which  offers  no  help  toward 
understanding  them  and  in  a  puzzling  context.  It  is  strange  to 
hear  of  the  Amazons  in  Laconia,  a  canton  in  no  way  associated 
with  the  stock  tale,  as  we  know  it,  of  the  invasion  of  Attica. 
The  few  words  in  Pausanias  suggest  that  the  legend  at  Pyrrhi- 
chus told  of  the  halting  of  a  large  army.  In  this  it  would 
differ  from  the  Boeotian  tradition^^*  of  a  small  band  of  Amazons 
separated  from  the  rest  in  their  rout  by  Theseus.     There  is  no 

i«3Pau8.  3.  25,   1-3.     Pausanias  quotes  Pindar  on  Silenus,   "the    zealous 
beater  of  the  ground  in  the  dance." 
»"  Paus.  1.41,7. 

40 


41 

mention  of  a  goal,  whether  Athens  or  Troezen,  toward  which 
the  army  that  halted  in  Laconia  were  directing  their  campaign. 

It  seems  natural  to  name  Apollo  and  Artemis  together,  yet 
the  Artemis  of  Ephesus,  with  whom  the  Amazons  were  closely 
associated,  and  Artemis  Tauropolos,  also  mentioned  as  a 
goddess  whom  they  worshipped,  are  in  no  way  like  the  com- 
panion of  the  Hellenic  Apollo.  The  obvious  course  of  reason- 
ing is  to  assume  that  Astrateia  is  the  Asiatic  Artemis  and  that, 
therefore,  Apollo  Amazonius  is  fundamentally  a  non-Hellenic 
god. 

Although  Apollo  is  pre-eminently  a  Greek  divinity,  the 
same  name  was  used  of  a  god  worshipped  in  the  Troad  before 
the  times  of  the  earliest  Aeolic  colonisation.  The  only  attri- 
butes of  this  deity,  whose  epithet  was  Smintheus,  were 
the  bow  and  the  gift  of  prophecy .^^^  Throughout  the  Iliad 
Apollo  appears  as  a  Trojan  rather  than  a  Greek  ally,  a  fact  not 
without  significance  to  this  inquiry.  Cicero^^^  mentions 
three  gods  called  Apollo:  the  son  of  Hephaestus  and  Athena, 
the  son  of  Corybas,  and  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Leto.  Of  the 
second,  who  would  seem  to  belong  to  cults  related  to  that  of  the 
Mother,  it  was  said  that  he  was  born  in  Crete,  and  that  he 
contended  with  Zeus  himself  for  the  possession  of  the  island. 
He  is  elsewhere  called  a  son  of  Corybas,  but  this  is  the  only 
reference  to  his  struggle  with  Zeus.^^^  This  Apollo  might 
appropriately  be  paired  with  an  Artemis  of  the  type  of  Ephesia. 
The  sole  hint  at  a  ritual  relation  between  Artemis  and  Apollo 
at  Ephesus  is  in  the  inscription  quoted  above,^^^  which  records 

i« /Kad,  1.  38-39,  and  schol.  adl;  ibid.  i51;  Steph.  Byz.  s.z>.  'IXiov,  Tivedos; 
Paus.  10.  12,  1-6.  Pausanias  (I.  c.)  gives  an  account  of  the  Sibyl  Herophile, 
conceived  to  ha^e  been  the  second  who  filled  the  oflBce  at  Delphi.  The  god 
whom  she  served  was  evidently  identified  with  Smintheus.  Herophile  was 
called  in  some  epic  sources  Artemis,  in  others,  the  wife  of  Apollo,  in  others,  his 
daughter  or  a  sister  other  than  Artemis.  She  seems  to  have  been  in  some  way 
connected  with  Trojan  Ida. 

1''  Cicero,  De  Nature  Deorum,  3.  57. 

1"  Cf.  Hoeck,  Kreta,  3.  p.  146. 

"8  P.  36. 


42 

the  dedication  of  a  statue  of  "  the  Cretan  Lady  of  Ephesus,  the 
Light-Bearer"  to  Apollo,  "Healer  of  diseases  and  Giver  of 
Light  to  mortals."  It  was  found  to  be  not  improbable  that 
the  Cretan  Lady  was  the  goddess  whom  the  Lycians  wor- 
shipped under  the  type  of  Ephesia,  and  to  whom  as  AvKeia 
Hippolytus  dedicated  a  temple  at  Troezen.  Sophocles^^^ 
emphasises  the  bow  as  the  attribute  of  Apollo  Avkcio^,  the 
companion  of  Artemis  of  Lycia.  With  this  should  be  con- 
sidered the  fact  that  Apollo  had  three  oracular  shrines  in  Asia 
Minor, — at  Branchidae,  Clarus,  and  Patara  in  Lycia.  Then 
the  gift  of  prophecy  as  well  as  the  bow,  the  two  attributes  of 
Apollo  Smintheus  may  both  be  assigned  to  the  Lycian  Apollo. 
The  hypothesis  may  be  stated:  that  the  Phrygian-Lycian 
Apollo,  closely  allied  to  Artemis  Avkclu,  the  Lycian  type  of 
Ephesia,  is  Apollo  Amazonius.  The  theory  tends  to  reconcile 
two  conflicting  statements,  the  one  that  of  Pindar,^""  who 
represents  Apollo  as  friendly  to  the  Amazons,  the  other  that 
of  Macrobius,^°^  who  tells  that  he  assisted  Theseus  and 
Heracles  against  them.  Apollo,  conceived  as  the  Hellenic  god, 
would  naturally  be  their  enemy,  while  the  Asiatic  Apollo 
would  be  their  patron.  It  is  possible  to  explain  in  the  same 
way  the  seeming  inconsistency  shown  in  representing  the 
defeat  of  the  Amazons  on  the  walls  of  the  temple  at  Bassae. 

It  has  been  assumed  in  the  preceding  paragraph  that 
Artemis  Astrateia,  because  she  is  a  goddess  of  the  Amazons, 
is  practically  identical  with  Ephesia,  and  on  this  assumption 
an  hypothetical  interpretation  of  Apollo  Amazonius  has  been 
based.  In  order  that  the  investigation  may  be  pursued  from  a 
different  point  of  view,  this  argument  may  be  dismissed  for 
the  present,  to  give  place  to  an  inquiry  concerning  the  meaning 

i»9  Soph.  I.  c.  (Oed.  R.  204  £f.).     The  date  of  Sophocles  in  the  best  Greek 
period  gives  the  passage  special  importance. 
a""  Find.  01.  8.  47. 
201  Macr.  Saturn.  1.  17-18. 


43 

of  Astrateia.  FarnelP°^  does  not  discuss  the  epithet  Ama- 
zonius,  but  for  Astrateia  he  proposes  the  explanation  that  the 
word  is  a  linguistic  corruption  for  Astarte.  By  this  theory  the 
connection  with  a  ajpareia  denotes  only  a  local  attempt  to 
account  for  a  word  of  which  the  real  significance  was  com- 
pletely lost.  The  position  of  Pyrrhichus  on  the  Laconian 
coast  makes  it  easily  credible  that  foreign  influences  might 
have  imported  the  Semitic  goddess.  As  the  theory  is  put 
forward  tentatively,  details  are  not  elaborated,  and  so  it  is 
not  stated  whether  there  is  any  reason  other  than  caprice  for 
connecting  the  Amazons,  rather  than  another  army,  with  the 
imaginary  a-rpareia.  Rouse^*^^  accepts  the  statement  of 
Pausanias  as  it  stands  and  renders  the  phrase  "Artemis  of 
the  War-host." 

If  Astrateia  be  "Artemis  of  the  War-host,"  she  was  pre- 
sumably an  armed  goddess.  Pausanias^"^  records  that  there 
was  a  statue  of  Artemis  in  Messenia  bearing  shield  and  spear. 
At  Laodicea  there  was  the  conception  of  an  armed  Artemis, 
as  shown  by  coins,  and  since  the  Laodiceans  claimed  to  possess 
the  original  cult  statue  of  the  Brauronian  goddess,^''^  who  was 
identified  with  the  Tauric  Virgin,2°^  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  these  two  types  of  Artemis,  Brauronia  and  Taurica, 
depicted  her  as  an  armed  goddess.  Furthermore,  Artemis 
appears  as  a  goddess  of  battle  in  her  cult  as  Agrotera,  for  she 
regularly  received  sacrifice  from  the  Spartans  before  a  com- 
paign  or  a  battle  ;^°^  at  Athens  the  polemarch,  assisted  by  the 
ephebes,  in  commemoration  of  Marathon  sacrificed  annually 
to  her  in  conjunction  with  Enyalius;^°^  and  at  Aegaera  in 

20*  Farnell,  op.  cit.  2.  p.  485.  Elsewhere  (2.  p.  473)  Farnell  speaks  of  the 
identification  between  Artemis  and  the  Semitic  goddesses,  Astarte,  Derceto, 
Atargatis. 

""Rouse,  Greek  Votive  Offerings,  p.  119. 

2»*  Paus.  4.  13,  1. 

2»5  Paus.  3.  16,  8. 

"« Paus.  3.  16,  7-9. 

"'  Xen.  Hell.  4.  2,  20. 

"8  Pollux,  8.  91. 


44 

Achaea  she  was  believed  to  have  routed  the  Sicyonians  by- 
telling  the  people  of  Aegaera  to  bind  torches  to  the  horns  of  a 
flock  of  goats  in  order  to  terrify  the  enemy .^"^  Artemis  Laph- 
ria,  a  Calydonian  deity,  is  possibly  also  a  goddess  of  war.  She 
is  pre-eminently  a  huntress,  and  in  this  respect  might  resemble 
Thracian  Bendis,  who  entered  the  Greek  pantheon  as  Artemis. 
Pausanias-^°  seems  to  hint  that  the  type  of  Laphria  is  related 
to  that  of  Ephesia.  Ephesia  and  Bendis  both  are  forms  of 
the  Mother,  who  in  Asia  was  warlike.^" 

But  not  one  of  these  epithets  of  warlike  Artemis  is  suggestive 
of  the  word  Astrateia.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  is  in  three 
surnames  of  Aphrodite,— Strateia  at  Mylasa,^!^  Strategis  at 
Paros,^^^  and  Stratonikis  at  Smyrna,^^''  of  which  the  first  is 
startlingly  similar  to  the  one  under  consideration.  The  only 
epithet  among  those  used  of  Artemis  which  recalls  Astrateia 
is  Hegemone. 

Artemis  Hegemone  was  worshipped  at  Tegea,  at  Sparta, 
and  near  Acacesium  in  Arcadia.  About  her  cult  at  Tegea 
there  is  nothing  told  which  would  differentiate  this  from  other 
types.^^^  At  Sparta  she  was  worshipped  with  Eileithyia  and 
Apollo  Carneiis  in  a  shrine  near  the  Dromos}^^  Eileithyia 
seems  to  have  been  a  primitive  goddess,  whose  worship  was 
pre-Hellenic,  and  who  in  classical  Greek  times  was  identified 
with  Artemis  as  helper  of  women  in  travail .^^^    The  torch  was 

"9  Paus.  7.  26,  2-3. 

"0  Paus.  4.  31,  8. 

«i  Farnell  (op.  cit.  2.  p.  471)  suggests  that  Laphria  is  derived  from  \d<pvpa. 
For  a  coin  of  Messene,  which  may  represent  Laphria,  showing  a  woman  huntress 
with  a  spear  v.  Imhoof-Blumer  and  Gardner,  Numism.  Comment,  on  Paus. 
p.  67,  pi.  P3. 

"«  C.  I.  G.  2693. 

«3  Le  Bas,  lies,  2062. 

«<  C.  I.  G.  3137.     Cf.  Tac.  Ann.  3.  63. 

215  Paus.  8.  47,  6. 

«« Paus.  3.  14,  6. 

2"  Cic.  De  Nat.  Deor.  2.  27.  68;  Paus.  1.  18,  5;  2.  22,  6-7;  7.  23,  5-7;  8.  21,  a 
The  Orphic  Hymn  to  Artemis  confuses  her  with  Eileithyia  and  Hecate. 


45 

prominent  in  her  ritual.  Apollo  Carneiis  is  generally  known 
as  the  patron  of  the  Dorian  race.  There  are  frequent  notices 
of  him  in  ancient  literature  as  the  god  of  the  conquering  people 
of  Lacedaemon,  a  warrior  who,  like  Mars  at  Rome,  presides 
also  over  the  flocks  and  herds.^^^  Yet  Pausanias-^^  tells  a 
story  which  makes  it  highly  probable  that  among  the  pre- 
Dorian  folk  of  Sparta  there  was  a  god  of  prophecy  whose 
worship  was  grafted  on  that  of  Hellenic  Apollo,  whence  there 
was  formed  the  type  of  Carneiis.  Pausanias  distinguishes 
between  a  man  named  Carneiis  and  Apollo  Carneiis.  The 
former,  who  was  surnamed  OtVeVa?,  lived  in  pre-Dorian 
Sparta,  and  was  highly  honoured  in  the  family  of  a  prophet 
named  Crius.  In  Dorian  times  there  was  a  prophet  of  an 
Acarnanian  family  who  was  killed  at  Sparta  by  Hippotes. 
Apollo  therefore  was  wrathful,  and  the  Dorians  exiled  the 
criminal  and  atoned  for  the  murder.  The  cult  name  of  Apollo 
Carneiis  was  formed  from  the  name  of  this  Acarnanian  prophet. 
It  will  be  observed  that  in  both  legends  there  is  mention  of 
prophecy,  a  fact  strongly  suggestive  of  the  Phrygian  Apollo. 
Pausanias  in  this  context  relates  a  third  story  which  brings 
Apollo  Carneiis  into  direct  connection  with  Troy.  He  tells 
that  when  the  Greeks  were  making  the  wooden  horse,  they 
used  wood  of  a  cornel-tree  (Kpdveia)  cut  in  the  sacred  grove 
of  Apollo.  As  soon  as  they  learned  that  the  god  was  angry 
at  their  presumption  they  propitiated  him  under  the  name 
Carneiis.  It  seems  not  unreasonable  to  infer  from  these  three 
legends  that,  although  Apollo  Carneiis  came  to  be  regarded 
as  the  Dorians'  god,  he  was  in  a  measure  identical  with  the 
prophet-god  of  Phrygia  and  Lycia.     The  inference  is  strength- 

"«  On  the  Carnea,  the  chief  festival  of  Sparta,  v.  Herod.  7.  206;  8.  72.  This 
festival  commemorated  the  Dorian  conquest.  Therefore  during  its  celebration 
the  people  remained  under  arms  and  lived  camp  life.  The  feast  was  also  one 
of  harvest.  Cf.  the  Jewish  Feast  of  Tabernacles  for  a  striking  parallel.  V. 
Mommsen,  Heart. 

"»  Paus.  3.  13,  3-5. 


46 

ened  by  a  fourth  account  in  the  same  context.  In  this 
Pausanias  quotes  Praxilla,  who  said  that  Carneiis  was  from 
Crete,  since  he  was  the  son  of  Europa  and  Zeus,  foster-child  of 
Apollo  and  Leto.  In  further  support  of  the  theory,  here 
stated  tentatively,  it  should  be  added  that  Acarnania,  the 
home  of  the  prophet  who  was  killed  at  Sparta  by  the  Dorians, 
was  the  country  of  the  Curetes,  conceived  as  one  of  the  pre- 
Hellenic  races  of  Greece.^^"  Their  name  points  to  Crete.  It 
must  also  be  said  that  many  believed  Eileithyia  to  be  of  Cretan 
origin.22^  Thus  Eileithyia,  the  third  in  the  group  worshipped 
at  Sparta,  may  have  been  connected  with  the  cult  of  the 
Apollo  of  Phrygia,  Lycia,  and  Crete.  In  the  shrine  of  Artemis 
Hegemone  near  Acacesium  the  cult  statue  showed  the  goddess 
with  torches  in  her  hands.^^^  This  temple  gave  access  to  the 
sanctuary  of  Despoena,^^^  in  which  Demeter  was  worshipped 
as  the  mother  of  Despoena.  The  cult  legend  made  Artemis 
the  child  of  Demeter  rather  than  of  Leto.  Therefore  beside 
the  throne  of  Demeter  there  was  a  statue  of  Artemis,  who  was 
represented  as  a  huntress  with  quiver,  hunting  dog,  and  a 
mantle  of  stag's  skin.  In  one  hand  she  carried  a  torch,  in  the 
other  two  serpents.  Since  the  temple  of  Artemis  Hegemone 
gave  access  to  this  shrine,  and  since  in  the  attribute  of  the 
torch  the  statue  in  the  inner  sanctuary  resembled  that  in 
the  outer  temple,  it  seems  probable  that  the  Artemis  of  the 
Despoena  temple  was  Artemis  Hegemone.  In  this  sanctuary 
the  Great  Mother  was  worshipped  with  Demeter  and  Des- 
poena, and  the  initiates  heard  holy  tales  about  the  Titanes,^^^ 
Curetes,  and  Corybantes,  all  of  whom  were  connected  with 

ssoPaus.  8.  24,  9.     Apollo  is  called  the  patron  of  the  Curetes  against  the 
Aetolians,  Paus.  10.  31,  3. 

221  V.  references  in  n.  217. 

222  Paus.  8.  37,  1. 

223  On  the  sanctuary  of  Despoena  v.  Paus.  8.  37,  1  ff. 

224  On  the  Titanes  v.  J.  E.  Harrison,  British  School  Annual,  1908-09,  pp. 
308-338. 


47 

orgiastic  rites — the  first,  with  those  of  Dionysus,  the  second 
and  third,  with  those  of  Rhea-Cybele.  It  would  follow  that 
Artemis  Hegemone  belonged  to  the  circle  of  deities  honoured 
by  mystic  ceremonies  like  those  of  Crete  and  Asia  Minor. 
Miss  Harrison--^  mentions  the  torch  as  a  conspicuous  feature 
in  the  cult  of  Artemis  Hegemone  and  connects  her  closely  with 
Hecate  who  was  ^(oa(f)6po<;  on  the  shores  of  the  Thracian 
Bosphorus.  The  identification  between  Hecate  and  the 
Mother  has  already  been  noticed. ^^® 

The  investigation  of  Hegemone  as  an  epithet  would  be 
incomplete  without  the  mention  of  the  use  of  the  word  in 
three  other  instances:  alone,  as  the  name  of  a  goddess;  as 
surname  of  Aphrodite;  in  adjectival  form  'Hfycfiovio^;  as  an 
epithet  of  Hermes.  The  first  of  these  shows  Hegemone  as  the 
name  of  one  of  the  divinities  by  whom  the  Athenian  ephebes 
swore:  "Be  ye  judges  of  the  oath,  Agraulus,  Enyalius,  Ares, 
Zeus,  Thallo,  Auxo,  Hegemone."-^  Agraulus,  Thallo,  Auxo, 
and  Hegemone  appear  to  have  been  old  deities  of  the  soil. 
Pausanias^^^  gives  Thallo  as  one  of  the  two  Horae  whom  the 
Athenians  worshipped  with  Pandrosus.  He  gives  Auxo  and 
Hegemone  as  the  two  Charites  who  had  been  revered  at 
Athens  from  of  old  (e'/c  iraXaiov)  .^~^  The  evidence  for  the 
worship  of  Aphrodite  Hegemone  is  an  altar  basis  found  on  the 
Acropolis  at  Athens  with  the  inscription:  ^A<f)po8tT7j  '^yefiovp 
Tov  8'^fiov.'^^'^  Epigraphical  evidence  also  furnishes  the  epithet 
Hegemonius  with  Hermes.     The  inscription^^^  comes  from  the 

226  Harrison  and  Verrall,  Myth,  and  Mons.  of  Anc.  Athens,  p.  383. 

«6  Ch.  II,  The  Great  Mother. 

"'  Pollux,  8.  106. 

=28  Paus.  9.  35,  1-7.     The  other  Hora  was  Carpo. 

=='  With  Paus.  9.  35,  1-7  cf.  Herod.  2.  50.  Pausanias  ascribes  to  Eteocles  of 
Orchomenus  the  introduction  of  three  Charites.  Herodotus  names  the  Charites 
among  the  aboriginal  deities  of  the  Hellenes. 

230  C.  I.  A.  4.  2,  1161  b;  LoUing  in  AeXr.  "Apx-  1891,  pp.  25  fif.,  126  ff ;  Ho- 
molle  in  Bull,  de  Correspondance  Hellen.  15  (1891),  pp.  340  ff. 

231  C.  I.  A.  2.  741,  Fr.  a,  20;  b,  14,  1207,  7;  Judeich,  Topographie  v.  Athen 
(Miiller's  Handb.  d.  klass.  Altertumsw.  3.  2,  2)  p.  400. 


48 

site  of  the  Metroiim  at  the  Piraeus,  where  Atys  was  worshipped 
with  the  Mother,  and  it  is  therefore  presumable  that  this 
Hermes  belongs  in  some  way  to  this  Asiatic  cult. 

It  is  possible  to  interpret  Hegemone  as  an  epithet  indicating 
warlike  character.  The  phrase,  "leader  of  the  people," 
applied  to  Aphrodite  at  Athens,  suggests  this.  The  Hege- 
mone whom  the  ephebes  invoked  may  have  been  regarded  as 
such  a  leader.  That  as  a  Charis  she  was  a  primitive  goddess 
of  the  soil  tends  to  support  the  theory,  inasmuch  as  early 
divinities  are  frequently  both  givers  of  fertility  and  protectors 
of  their  people  in  battle.  It  has  been  seen  that  this  was  the 
case  with  Apollo  Carneiis  at  Sparta.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
there  he  was  associated  with  Artemis  Hegemone.  This 
combination  of  qualities  is  displayed  by  the  Great  Mother  and 
those  resembling  her.  It  has  been  noted  that  the  Arcadian 
cult  of  Artemis  Hegemone  was  in  some  way  closely  related  to 
that  of  Despoena,  a  goddess  whose  rites  were  connected  with 
the  Corybantic  rites  of  Demeter  and  the  Asiatic  Mother. 
Furthermore,  the  likeness  between  Artemis  Hegemone  and 
Hecate  confirms  the  theory. 

But  whether  Artemis  Hegemone  gained  her  epithet  from  a 
warlike  character  or  not,  she  is  undeniably  a  goddess  whose 
attribute  was  the  torch,  and  in  this  she  approaches  several  of 
those  forms  of  Artemis  which  are  admitted  to  be  martial.^^^ 
Artemis  Agrotera  was  a  huntress  like  the  Artemis,  probably 
Hegemone,  beside  the  throne  of  Demeter  in  the  sanctuary  of 
Despoena.  Like  her,  and  also  like  the  Artemis  of  the  outer 
shrine,  who  was  certainly  Artemis  Hegemone,  she  was  a  god- 
dess of  the  torch.  The  fact  comes  out  in  the  story  of  the  rout 
of  the  Sicyonian  army  at  Aegaera.  In  the  version  which  the 
Pseudo-Plutarch  gives  of  the  ceremony  in  which  the  Polemarch 
and  ephebes  sacrificed  at  Athens  in  memory  of  Marathon  he 
substitutes  Hecate  for  Artemis  Agrotera,  the  name  given  by 

25*  On  the  types  of  warlike  Artemis  v.  supra,  pp.  43-44. 


49 

Pollux.  Artemis  Laphria,  who  seems  to  have  resembled 
Ephesia,  was  honoured  at  Patrae  in  Achaea  in  an  annual 
festival  of  fire.^^^  Into  an  enclosure  about  her  altar  all  sorts 
of  wild  beasts  were  driven  to  be  burned  alive.  Like  Agrotera 
and,  presumably,  like  Hegemone,  she  was  a  huntress.  An- 
other huntress  was  Thracian  Bendis,  who  was  nearly  related  to 
Hecate  and  the  Mother,  and  who  was  taken  over  by  the 
Greeks  as  a  form  of  Artemis.     Her  rites  required  torches.^^^ 

The  torch  does  not  appear  as  a  feature  in  the  Hellenic 
worship  of  Artemis  until  the  fifth  century  B.C.  After  that 
its  connection  with  the  cult  becomes  steadily  more  and  more 
prominent.  Its  association  with  this  goddess  may  be  traced 
historically  to  the  influence  of  orgiastic  rituals  from  Thrace  and 
Asia  Minor,  like  those  of  the  Mother  and  Dionysus,  and  it  is 
to  be  explained  by  the  tendency  to  identify  Artemis  with 
various  forms  of  Magna  Mater P^  The  inference  is  inevitable, 
that  the  three  types  of  Artemis, — Agrotera,  Hegemone,  and 
Laphria — approach  one  which  may  be  called  Thracian- 
Phrygian,  probably  that  of  Hecate,  in  so  far  as  she  is  similar  to 
Cybele.  These  three  forms  of  Artemis  are  warlike  in  char- 
acter, but  it  is  impossible  to  state  with  certainty  that  any  one 
of  them  was  represented  in  the  cult  image  as  an  armed  goddess. 
Such  a  statement  can  be  made  only  of  the  statue  of  Artemis  at 
Laodicea  and  of  that  which  Pausanias  saw  at  Messene.  We 
possess  no  further  record  of  the  latter,  but  we  are  practically 
sure  that  the  former  was  the  type  surnamed  Taurica  and 
Brauronia.-^^  Since  the  home  of  this  cult  was  the  Tauric 
Chersonese,  where  the  goddess  was  called  the  Virgin,  the  type 
must  be  classed  as  Thracian,  and  since  it  resembles  that  of 
Rhea-Cybele  and  Artemis  Ephesia,  it  may  properly  be  called 
Thracian-Phrygian.     Thus  not  only  the  forms  of  Artemis 

»'  Paus.  7.  18,  11-13. 
234  Yox  references  v.  n.  118. 
«"  Cf.  Farnell  op.  cit.  2.  pp.  474-475. 
«6  V.  n.  n.  122,  205. 
5 


50 

which  imply  a  warhke  character,  but  also  those  which  repre- 
sented her  armed,  indicate  that  the  cult  came  from  the  coun- 
tries where  the  chief  deity  was  a  woman,  both  Mother  and 
Warrior.  It  follows,  that  if  Artemis  Astrateia  be  Artemis  *'  of 
the  War-host,"  she  is  closely  akin  to  the  type  of  the  Mother. 
In  other  words,  she  is,  as  it  was  at  first  conjectured,  very  like 
Ephesia  and  Tauropolos. 

It  remains  to  consider  the  possibility  that  she  is  Astarte. 
Cicero^"  remarks  that  Astarte  of  Syria  was  identified  with 
Aphrodite,  and  that  in  this  conception  she  appears  as  the  wife 
of  Adonis.  Herein  the  type  of  Aphrodite  approximates  that 
of  Cybele  in  Lydia  and  Phrygia  where  Atys  corresponds  to 
Adonis.  At  Hierapolis  the  Syrian  goddess  described  by  the 
Pseudo-Lucian  has  characteristics  of  Artemis  as  well  as 
Aphrodite.  In  these  rites  the  torch  was  a  prominent  feature, 
as  in  those  of  the  Thracian-Phrygian  Mother.  Thus  Artemis 
Astarte  might  be  precisely  the  same  as  Warlike  Artemis. 
Moreover,  even  if  the  goddess  at  Pyrrhichus  were  an  Astarte 
more  similar  to  Aphrodite  than  to  Artemis,  the  probabilities 
would  be  strong  in  favour  of  the  theory  that  she  was  armed, 
for  the  cult  epithet  of  Aphrodite-Astarte  in  Greek  religion  was 
Urania,  of  whom  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  she  was  the 
armed  Aphrodite.^^^  So  from  two  hypotheses,  the  one,  that 
Artemis  Astrateia  is  Warlike  Artemis,  the  other,  that  she  is 
Astarte,^^  the  inference  is  to  be  drawn  that  the  image  at 
Pyrrhichus  showed  her  armed. 

On  the  assumption  that  the  goddess  was  armed  it  is  reason- 
able to  suppose  that  an  armed  god  was  grouped  with  her.  It 
is  easy  to  imagine  the  Hellenic  Apollo  defending  his  people, 

2"  Cic.  De  Nat.  Deor.  3.  23,  59. 

"8C/.  Paus.  1.  14,  7;  3.  23,  1.     V.  infra,  ch.  V,  Ares. 

239  Possibly  there  is  some  support  for  Farnell's  hypothesis,  that  Astrateia 
is  a  corruption  for  Astarte,  in  the  words  of  St.  Stephen's  sermon  recording  the 
apostasy  of  the  Jews  to  the  Syrian  goddess:  fffrpeipev  di  6  9e6j  Kal  irap^SuKcv 
avToiis  Xarpeijeiv  t%  crpariq.  tov  oiipavov,  Acts,  7.  42. 


51 

inspiring  them  with  courage,  and  visiting  their  enemies  with 
pestilence,  yet  he  is  not  a  truly  martial  deity  under  any  one  of 
these  conceptions.  However,  his  worship  at  Sparta  as 
Carneiis  has  reminiscence  of  a  time  when  he  was  regarded  as  a 
fighting  god.  Comment  has  already  been  made^^°  on  the 
indications  that  Carneiis  was  a  pre-Dorian  divinity  of  prophecy 
whom  the  Hellenes  identified  with  their  Apollo.  The  Phrygian 
god  to  whom  he  was  very  possibly  related  was  a  warrior  in  so 
far  as  the  bow  was  as  fixedly  his  attribute  as  the  mantic  gift. 
Near  Sparta  there  was  the  shrine  of  another  Apollo,"'*^  por- 
trayed in  rude  and  primitive  fashion  in  the  form  of  a  colossal 
bronze  column,  to  which  were  added  the  head,  hands,  and 
feet  of  a  man.  The  figure  wore  a  helmet,  and  in  his  hands  he 
carried  spear  and  bow.  Amyclae,  the  village  to  which  his 
sanctuary  belonged,  was  one  of  the  pre-Dorian  cities  which 
had  held  out  valiantly,  but  had  finally  been  devastated  by  the 
invaders.^^^  Here  there  was  preserved  down  to  the  time  of 
Pausanias  a  sanctuary  of  Alexandra,  so-called  by  the  Amy- 
claeans,  who  was  said  to  be  Priam's  daughter  Cassandra.^^^ 
At  Leuctra  in  Laconia  this  Alexandra  had  a  temple  and  image, 
and  here  there  were  xoana  of  Apollo  Carneiis,  "  made  after  the 
custom  of  the  Lacedaemonians  of  Sparta. "'^"^  Cassandra  is 
conspicuously  a  prophetess  who  belongs  to  Troy  and  to 
Trojan  Apollo,  and  therefore  a  relation  between  her  cult  and 
that  of  Carneiis,  a  god  who  seems  to  have  been  originally 
identical  with  the  prophetic  Apollo  of  Phrygia,  Lycia,  and 

'^o  V.  supra,  pp.  45-46. 

2"  Paus.  3.  18,  6-19,  5.     V.  Frazer's  commentary  on  the  passage. 

2«  Paus.  3.  2,  6;  3.  19,  6. 

2"  Paus.  3.  19,  6.  There  was  a  dispute  between  Amyclae  and  Mycenae, 
each  of  them  claiming  to  possess  the  tomb  of  Cassandra  (Paus.  2.  16,  6).  The 
word  Alexandra  suggests  the  Trojan  name  of  Paris.  It  implies  a  woman  warrior, 
or  one  averse  to  marriage.  In  the  latter  connotation  it  suggests  Cassandra's 
refusal  to  marry  Apollo  after  she  had  obtained  from  him  the  gift  of  prophecy ; 
it  suggests  also  the  other  famous  story  of  the  sacrilege  of  Ajax. 

2«  Paus.  3.  26,  5. 


52 

Crete,^*^  is  natural.  Apollo  Amyclaeus  resembles  this  Cretan- 
Asiatic  Apollo  in  the  attribute  of  the  bow,  and  the  helmet  and 
spear  betray  his  relation  to  Apollo  Carneiis.  Moreover,  since 
at  Leuctra  in  Laconia  there  was  evidently  a  connection 
between  the  rites  of  Cassandra  and  Apollo  Carneiis,  the 
inference  may  be  drawn  that  at  Amyclae  she  stood  in  ritual 
relation  to  the  local  god.  It  would  follow  that  Apollo  Amy- 
claeus was  in  some  way  a  prophet,  and  thus  in  another  detail 
Amyclaeus  resembles  the  pre-Dorian  Carneiis.  The  festival 
of  the  Hyacinthia,  which  belonged  to  the  Amyclaean  cult,  gave 
temporary  freedom  to  the  slaves  of  the  region  about  Sparta 
and  was  a  great  holiday  among  the  humbler  freemen.  It 
seems  probable  therefore  that  the  feast  was  derived  from  the 
religion  of  the  submerged  element  of  the  population,  i.  e.  from 
the  conquered  aborigines.  In  its  mystic  imagery  of  the 
processes  of  life  and  death  there  is  the  hint  that  it  was  insti- 
tuted in  honour  of  a  chthonic  deity  of  fertility .^^^  The  legends 
of  Amyclae  certainly  told  of  a  period  when  the  place  was 
influential  before  the  Dorian  Invasion,  and  so  presumably  the 
worship  of  Apollo  Amyclaeus  was  instituted  by  the  pre-historic, 
or  "Mycenaean,"  inhabitants  of  Laconia,  whose  civilisation, 
revealed  in  the  artistic  remains  of  Vaphio  and  in  the  myth  of 
the  royal  house  of  Menelaus,  was  homogeneous  with  that 
termed  "Minoan."  The  chief  points  in  the  argument  are 
that  Apollo  Amyclaeus  was  portrayed  in  non-Hellenic  fashion, 
that  he  was  conceived,  like  Carneiis,  as  warrior  and  god  of 
fertility,  and  that  in  general  characteristics  he  seems  to  have 

"'  From  the  Agamemnon  of  Aeschylus  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  cult  epi- 
thets of  Trojan  Apollo  were  Loxias  and  Agyieus,  the  names  by  which  Cassandra 
cries  to  him.     Loxias  has  the  same  significance,  Eumen.  19. 

2«  On  the  Hyacinthia  v.  Paus.  3.  19,  3-4;  Athen.  4;  Ovid,  Met.  10.  219.  In 
the  Laconian  myth  Hyacinthus  was  the  son  of  Amyclas,  one  of  the  autochtho- 
nous kings  of  Sparta.  He  became  the  favourite  of  Apollo,  by  whom  he  was 
accidentally  slain.  The  legend  presents  parallels  to  the  story  of  Agdistis  and 
Atys  and  that  of  Aphrodite  and  Adonis.  On  the  tale  v.  Paus.  3.  1,  3;  3.  10,  1. 
A  legend  of  Salamis  connected  the  origin  of  the  hyacinth  with  the  death  of  Ajax. 


53 

been  identical  with  the  prophet-archer  worshipped  in  Asia  and 
in  Crete. 

Thus  various  trains  of  thought  converge  to  estabhsh  the 
theory  that  the  deities  whom  the  Amazons  were  said  to  have 
introduced  at  Pyrrhichus  were  a  warrior  woman  and  a  warrior 
man.  The  former  seems  to  have  been  akin  to  Cybele,  the 
Tauric  Virgin,  Ephesian  Artemis,  and  others  of  the  general 
type  which  includes  these,  the  latter,  to  the  god  who  was 
worshipped  by  the  same  pre-Hellenic  peoples  who  evolved  or 
perpetuated  the  rites  of  the  Mother.  He  is  a  male  divinity 
of  battle  and  fertility,  who  was  originally  of  secondary  im- 
portance to  the  female.  The  mantic  gift  which  belongs  to 
him  fits  in  well  with  the  clamour  which  accompanied  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Mother  in  historical  times  and  with  the  sense  of 
possession  by  divine  power  which  seized  upon  her  worshippers. 
As  Aeschylus  clearly  shows  in  the  character  of  Cassandra,  the 
skill  of  prophecy  is  divine  madness.  Frenzy  was  prominent 
in  all  orgiastic  cults. 

With  the  thought  in  mind  that  Artemis  Astrateia  and  Apollo 
Amazonius  are  gods  of  the  race  who  lived  in  Laconia  before 
the  Hellenes,  it  is  important  to  examine  the  brief  account  which 
Pausanias  furnishes  of  Pyrrhichus.-^'^  The  town  was  said  to 
have  been  named  either  from  Pyrrhus  or  from  Pyrrhichus, 
the  latter  a  god  of  the  so-called  Curetes.  It  is  natural  that 
the  epic  tales  about  the  house  of  INIenelaus  at  Sparta  should 
have  been  in  vogue  elsewhere  in  Laconia.  Therefore  the  story 
of  the  coming  of  Pyrrhus  to  wed  Hermione  was  associated  with 
Pyrrhichus  and  also  with  Scyra^^^  on  a  river  not  far  away. 
Pausanias,  however,  puts  more  confidence  in  the  other  account 
of  the  name  of  the  town. 

The  theory  that  Pyrrhichus  was  a  god  of  the  so-called 
Curetes  implies  that  these  are  here  conceived  to  be  a  primitive 

«'Paus.  I.  c.  (3.  25,  1-3). 
«»  Paus.  3.  25,  1. 


54 

folk.  The  only  region  of  Greece  to  which  an  early  people  of 
this  name  may  be  assigned  with  certainty  is  the  land  north  of 
the  Corinthian  gulf.  Apollodorus^'*®  states  that  the  older 
name  of  Aetolia,  regarded  as  the  tract  extending  from  the 
Evenus  to  the  Acheloiis,  was  Curetis,  and  Pausanias^^"  tells 
that  the  Curetes  were  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Acarnania. 
In  the  legend  of  Meleager,  as  it  is  preserved  in  the  Iliad,^^^  the 
Curetes  are  shown  besieging  Calydon,  the  Aetolians'  city. 
The  dispute  had  arisen  over  the  division  of  the  spoils  of  the 
famous  boar-hunt.  The  death  of  Meleager,  who  gives  his 
life  for  the  city,  is  ascribed  in  the  Homeric  version  to  the 
prayers  of  his  mother  Althaea,  who  had  cried  on  Hades  and 
Persephone  to  destroy  him  in  vengeance  for  his  having  slain 
her  brother,  a  prince  of  the  Curetes.  Pausanias^^^  quotes  the 
Eoeae  of  Hesiod  and  the  Minyad  as  authorities  for  the  state- 
ment that  he  was  killed  by  Apollo,  the  patron  of  the  Curetes 
against  the  Aetolians.  In  the  Homeric  story  there  is  a  hint 
that  Apollo  was  unfriendly  to  the  Calydonians.  This  is  in 
the  reference  to  the  presumption  of  Idas,  who  attempted  to 
shoot  Apollo  who  had  ravished  his  wife  Marpessa.  By  Idas 
she  was  mother  of  Cleopatra,  the  wife  of  Meleager.  Heroic 
legend  shows  many  connections  between  this  region  of  Acar- 
nania and  Aetolia  and  that  of  Messenia  and  Laconia.  At  the 
Calydonian  chase,  in  which  the  Curetes  and  Aetolians  were 
allies,  Idas  and  Lynceus  of  Messenia  and  their  Laconian 
cousins  and  rivals.  Castor  and  Polydeuces,  were  among  the 
assembled  chiefs  who  took  part.^^^  Idas  was  connected  with 
the  house  of  Calydon  by  marriage  with  Marpessa.^^'^    Thes- 

2"  Apollod.  1.  7,  6. 

260  Paus.  8.  24,  9.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  suggestion  that  the  Cabiri 
were  a  primitive  folk  of  Boeotia  (Paus.  9.  25,  6). 

251 II.  9.  527-599.     Cf.  Bacchylides,  5.  76-164. 

2^2  Paus.  10.  31,  3. 

2"Apollod.  1.  8,  2;  Ovid,  Met.  8.  300;  Hyg.  Fab.  173. 

^^*  Iliad.  9.  557-560;  Apollod.  1.  7,  9;  Schol.  Iliad  (Ven.),  9.  553;  Schol. 
Find.  Isth.  4.  92  (quoting  Bacchylides). 


55 

tius,  brother  to  Marpessa's  father  and  king  of  Pleuron,  the 
city  of  the  Curetes,  married  his  daughter  Althaea  to  Oeneus 
of  Calydon-^^  and  his  daughter  Leda  to  Tyndareus  of  Sparta.^^^ 
Thus  the  Dioscuri,  Leda's  children,  were  related  to  the 
Curetes  of  northern  Greece.  These  genealogies  originated 
doubtless  in  racial  affinities  between  the  pre-Dorians  of  Laconia 
and  Messenia  and  the  early  folk  of  Acarnania  and  Aetolia. 
In  pre-historic  times  Messenia  and  Laconia  seem  to  have  been 
one  country,  founded  by  Lelex,  locally  known  as  an  autoch- 
thon, and  its  name  was  Lelegia.^^^  The  Dioscuri  were  wor- 
shipped from  of  old  both  in  Messenia  and  in  Laconia  as  deol 
/xeydXot,  and  as  such  they  were  easily  confused  with  the  Cabiri 
and  also  with  the  Idaean  Dactyli.^^^  Thus  the  argument 
leads  to  a  connection  between  this  folk  called  Curetes  and  the 
people  among  whom  the  orgiastic  worship  of  the  Mother  was 
indigenous,  and  so  it  seems  natural  that  the  armed  dancers  who 
attended  Cretan  Rhea  should  have  been  named  Curetes.  The 
mention  of  the  Leleges  in  Laconia  and  Messenia  establishes 
direct  connections  with  the  pre-historic  "Aegean"  civilisation, 
which  was  tributary  to  the  "Minoan, "  and  also  with  the  early 
races  by  whom  the  sanctuary  of  Ephesian  Artemis  was 
founded.^^^ 

There  are  the  same  implications  in  the  statement^^"  that 
Pyrrhichus,  a  god  of  these  Curetes,  was  another  name  for 
Silenus.  The  oldest  and  most  persistent  legends  in  regard  to 
Silenus  connect  him  with  the  country  about  the  Maeander  in 
Phrygia.^®^  He  belongs  to  the  rites  of  Dionysus,  which  were 
intimately   related   to   those   of  the   Mother.     The   Cabiric 

«5  Iliad,  9.  565-572;  Apollod.  1.  8,  1;  Eurip.  Meleager,  Fr.  1. 
"sSchol.  Ap.  Rh.  1.  146. 
2"Paua.  3.  1.  1;4.  1,  1. 

«8  V.  supra,  ch.  II,  p.  23.  Cf.  Paus.  10.  38,  7.  F.  Toepffer,  Attische  Genea' 
logic,  p.  220. 

269  V.  supra,  ch.  Ill,  pp.  35  ff. 

2«»  Find.  ap.  Paus.  I.  c.  (3.  35,  2). 

2M  Herod.  7.  26;  8.  138;  Paus.  1.  4,  5;  2.  7,  9. 


56 

mysteries  probably  combined  the  cult  of  a  form  of  the  Mother 
with  that  of  Dionysus,  whence  arose  the  story  that  Dionysus 
was  the  son  of  Cabirus.^^^  Dioscuri,  Cabiri,  Anaces,  Dactyli 
are  all  in  a  certain  sense  the  same.  Hence  we  may  think  of 
this  Pyrrhichus  as  a  pre-Dorian,  or  "Lelegian,"  member  of 
the  circle  of  deities  among  whom  the  Mother  was  chief.  He 
was  probably  at  once  Cabirus,  Dactyl,  and  armed  dancer. 
That  he  was  the  last  is  implied  not  only  by  his  place  among  the 
Curetes,  but  also  by  the  fact  that  his  name  is  that  of  the 
famous  dance  at  Sparta.^^^ 

The  study  of  the  Curetes  of  Laconia  yields  evidence  in 
accord  with  that  gathered  from  other  courses  of  reasoning 
adopted  above.  The  forerunners  of  the  Hellenes  in  Laconia 
seem  to  have  been  akin  to  the  people  of  Acarnania,  where 
Apollo  was  the  patron  of  the  Curetes,  the  original  home  of  the 
prophet  Carneiis.  They  seem  also  to  have  been  related  to  the 
race  who  worshipped  the  Mother  under  the  type  of  the  goddess 
of  Ephesus. 

It  must  be  concluded,  therefore,  that  Artemis  Astrateia  was 
a  form  of  Ephesia,  and  that  Apollo  Amazonius  was  the  prophet- 
archer  who  was  worshipped  with  her  at  Ephesus,  and  whose 
cult  belonged  to  Phrygians,  Lycians,  Cretans,  and  the  pre- 
Hellenic  folk  of  Greece. 

262  Cic.  De  Nat.  Deor.  3.  23,  58. 

2«3  Athenaeus  (Deipnosoph.  14.  7)  ascribes  the  invention  of  the  Pyrrhic  dance 
to  Athena.  Plato  (Legg.  796  B)  says  that  after  the  gigantomachy  she  imparted 
the  rite  to  the  Dioscuri.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Melampus  by  a  dance  cures  the 
Proetides  whom  Dionysus  has  driven  mad  (Apollod.  2.  3,  7),  and  that  by  some 
theologians  Melampus  was  reckoned  as  a  Dioscurus  along  with  Alco  and  Tmolus, 
sons  of  Atreus  (Cic.  De  Nat.  Deor.  3.  21,  53).  Dionysus  himself  was  sometimes 
classed  as  a  Dioscurus,  i.  e.  at  Athens  in  the  worship  of  the  Anaces  (Cic.  I.  c.) . 


CHAPTER  V 

Ares 

The  legend  of  the  Amazons  was  not  superficially  rooted  at 
Athens.  This  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  it  found  expression 
in  cult  practice  at  one  of  the  greater  festivals  of  the  state. 
Before  the  Thesea  the  Athenians  annually  offered  sacrifice  to 
the  Amazons,  thus  commemorating  the  victory  of  Theseus 
over  the  women.  The  decisive  battle  was  said  to  have  been 
fought  on  the  day  marked  by  the  oblation  of  the  Boedromia}^^ 
Plutarch'^^  bases  his  belief  in  the  reality  of  the  invasion  of 
Attica  on  three  points:  the  place  names,  Amazonium  and 
Horcomosium;  the  presence  of  graves  of  the  fallen;  the  yearly 
sacrifice  to  the  Amazons. 

The  general  view  of  ancient  writers^^^  is  that  the  Amazons 
made  the  Areopagus  the  basis  of  their  operations,  having 
established  their  camp  there  in  a  spot  thenceforth  called  the 
Amazonium.^"  Aeschylus^^^  derives  the  name  of  the  hill 
itself  from  the  fact  that  there  the  Amazons  offered  frequent 
sacrifice-^^  to  Ares  while  they  held  it  as  a  citadel  against  the 
Acropolis.  The  statement  is  remarkable  in  view  of  two  facts 
which  seem  to  show  Ares  as  the  patron  of  Theseus  rather 

«4  Plut.  Thes.  27. 

265  For  Plutarch's  version  of  the  invasion  (quoting  Clidemus  for  details) 
V.  Thes.  26-28.  He  finds  it  difficult  to  believe  that  a  band  of  women  could 
have  conducted  a  campagn  on  the  scale  described  in  the  current  accounts,  but 
finally  accepts  the  fact.  He  doubts  only  the  statement  of  Hellanicus,  that  they 
crossed  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus  on  the  ice. 

266  Plut.  I.  c;  Diod.  Sic.  4.  28,  2,  3;  Apollod.  Epit.  1.  16;  Aeschyl.  Bum.  675  S. 
26'  On  the  site  v.  Judeich,  Topog.  v.  Athen,  p.  269. 

268  Aeschyl.  Eum.  685-690. 

269  The  Greek  is:  7r6Xi»'  ve6irTo\ti>  |  r-^vd'  in(/lirvpyov  ivTenvpywcrav  rbre,  |'Apet5' 
idvov.  It  seems  proper  to  contrast  the  imperfect  idvov  with  the  aorist 
iiVTeiripydsaaLV. 

57 


58 

than  of  the  Amazons:  Plutarch,"o  quoting  Clidemus,  says  that 
before  entering  the  critical  battle  with  the  Amazons  Theseus 
sacrificed  to  Phobus,  son  of  Ares,  and  hereby  won  the  day;  the 
tradition-^^  at  Troezen  told  that  Theseus  commemorated  his 
victory  over  the  Amazons  there  by  dedicating  a  temple  to  Ares 
at  the  entrance  to  the  Genethlium. 

It  is  therefore  impossible  to  determine  the  exact  relation 
in  which  Ares  stood  to  the  Amazons  in  the  story  of  the  invasion 
of  Greece.  All  that  may  be  said  is  that  his  name  belongs  to 
the  saga  of  Theseus  and  the  Amazons  in  the  two  accounts,  the 
Attic  and  the  Troezenian.  It  must  be  added  that  the  saga 
bears  the  marks  of  great  age.  Herein  Theseus  is  not  an 
intruder,  as  he  evidently  is  in  the  tales  of  the  storm  of  Themis- 
cyra,  nor  is  he  a  substitute  for  Heracles.  The  story  is  pri- 
marily concerned  with  Theseus  himself,  the  great  hero  of  the 
two  states.  While  in  the  former  it  is  connected  with  ritual 
acts,  in  the  latter  it  is  hallowed  by  association  with  the 
Genethlium,  the  traditional  birth-place  of  Theseus.^^^  More- 
over, on  the  tradition  of  the  Amazons  at  Troezen  rests  the 
story  of  Hippolytus,  whose  sepulchre  assured  the  safety  of 
the  nation.^^^ 

The  Attic  traditions  about  Theseus  were  concerned  chiefly 
with  his  adventures  in  Crete.  With  retrospect  toward  these 
the  Athenians  celebrated  the  festivals  of  the  Oschophoria,  the 
Pyanepsia,  and  the  Thesea.  Ariadne,  as  it  has  been  stated,^^* 
was  probably  a  Cretan  goddess,  with  whose  worship  at  Athens 
are  to  be  connected  the  rites  of  the  Oschophoria,  wherein  two 
youths  disguised  as  maidens  led  the  girls'  chorus.     The  impli- 

2'"  Plut.  I.  c.  The  verb  is  that  employed  of  chthonic  sacrifice,  ff<payid^u}. 
On  Phobus  v.  Iliad,  13.  299. 

"1  Paus.  2.  32,  9. 

2'2  Cf.  S.  Wide,  De  Sacris  Troezeniorum,  Hermionensium,  Epidauriorum,  pp. 
12  ff. 

2'3  Frazer,  Pausanias,  3.  p.  281. 

!"<  V.  supra,  ch.  Ill,  p.  38.  For  further  references  on  the  Oschophoria,  v.  J. 
E.  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  pp.  79  S. 


59 

cation  is  that  the  Oriental  idea  of  sex  confusion  was  associated 
with  the  festival.  It  seems  therefore  that  the  ceremonies 
instituted  by  Theseus  reflect  the  Anatolian  worship  of  Cybele. 
It  accords  with  the  customary  restraint  of  Hellenic  habits 
that  the  Oriental  idea  shown  in  the  cults  of  Cybele,  Ephesian 
Artemis,  and  the  Syrian  Goddess,  manifested  itself  at  Athens 
merely  in  a  pleasing  masque.  The  name  of  Theseus  also 
connected  Troezen  with  Crete.  Phaedra,  the  wife  with  whom 
he  lived  at  Troezen,  is  famous  as  the  destroyer  of  the  Amazon's 
son,  Hippolytus,  and  as  another  princess  of  the  house  of  Minos. 
Thus  in  its  twofold  aspect  the  tradition  of  Theseus  suggests 
the  time  when  "Minoan"  Crete  was  pre-eminent.  It  may  be 
that  the  association  of  the  Amazon  legend  with  the  tale  of 
Theseus  is  to  be  ascribed  to  some  such  source.  In  that  case 
Ares,  a  deity  whose  cult  had  slight  prominence  in  Greece, 
might  by  reason  of  his  place  in  the  saga  of  Theseus  and  the 
Amazons,  be  connected  with  the  cult  of  Aphrodite-Ariadne. 
There  is  this  suggestion  in  a  note  from  Olen  which  Pausanias^^^ 
inserts  in  the  account  of  his  visit  to  the  shrine  of  Hebe  at 
Phlius.  Olen  connects  Ares  with  Hebe  as  her  own  brother, 
born  of  Hera.  Her  shrine  at  Phlius  is  shown  to  be  very  old 
by  the  fact  that  her  worship  here  was  in  the  strictest  sense 
aniconic.  Her  annual  festival  of  the  "Ivy-Cuttings"  has  a 
hint  of  Dionysus  and  even  of  the  ivy-shaped  shields  of  the 
Amazons.  From  other  sources  it  may  be  gathered  that  she 
was  akin  to  Aphrodite-Ariadne.^^^  Pausanias  says  that  Hebe 
was  substituted  for  her  more  ancient  name,  Ganymeda.  In 
this  there  is  reminiscence  of  the  Trojan  youth  caught  up  to 
heaven  by  Zeus.  The  feminine  form  implies  the  appropriation 
by  one  sex  of  the  characteristics  of  the  other.  This  might 
belong  naturally  to  a  Phrygian  legend. 

A  search  for  parallels  to  the  association  which  Aeschylus 

"» Paus.  2.  13,  3-4. 

*'«0n  this  point  v.  Farnell,  op.  cit.  1.  p.  200;  5.  p.  126. 


60 

mentions  between  Ares  and  the  Amazons  discovers  first  of  all, 
as  most  striking,  the  legend  told  of  the  statue  of  Ares  VvvaiKo- 
6oiva<i  in  the  market-place  at  Tegea.^^^  The  statue  was 
explained  as  the  dedication  of  a  band  of  Tegeate  women  who 
had  won  a  victory  over  the  Spartans  in  the  time  of  King 
Charillus  of  Sparta.  After  peace  was  established  the  women 
instituted  a  festival  in  honour  of  Ares.  Since  men  were  ex- 
cluded from  the  sacrifice  and  sacred  banquet,  the  god  was 
called  "  Entertainer  of  Women."  It  is  interesting  to  find  such 
a  tale  in  Arcadian  Tegea,  the  home  of  Atalanta,  herself  similar 
to  the  Amazons.  It  is  worth  bearing  in  mind  that  Atalanta 
won  the  spoils  of  the  Calydonian  hunt  in  the  country  of  the 
Aetolians  and  Curetes,  the  kindred  of  the  folk  of  pre-historic 
Pyrrhichus.  In  the  temple  of  Athena  Alea  at  Tegea,  which 
contained  these  spoils,^^^  Marpessa,  leader  of  the  women  who 
honoured  Ares,  dedicated  her  shield.^^^ 

In  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Tegea  there  was  a 
shrine  of  Ares  'A^i^eio'?,^^"  situated  on  a  mountain  of  which  the 
name  Cresium  implies  the  worship  of  Cretan  Dionysus.^^^ 
The  epithet  was  explained  by  the  story  that  Ares  enabled  his 
child  Aeropus  to  draw  milk  from  the  breasts  of  his  mother 
after  her  death.  The  mother  Aerope,  grand-daughter  of  Aleus, 
was  akin  to  Atalanta.  The  lifetime  of  her  child  by  Ares  was 
placed  in  the  generation  preceding  the  Dorian  Invasion.^^^ 

Elsewhere  in  Arcadia, — at  Megalopolis^^^  and  near  Aca- 
cesium^^* — there  were  monuments  attesting  the  foundation  of 
the  cult  of  Ares  in  this  canton  in  early  days.     With  this 

2"  Paus.  8.  48,  4-5. 

2'8Paus.  8.  47,  2. 

2"  Paus.  8.  45,  5. 

280  Paus.  8.  44,  7-8. 

28"  On  Dionysus  Kpijo-ioj  v.  Paus.  2.  23,  7-8. 

282  Paus.  8.  45,  3. 

283  Paus.  8.  32,  3.     The  reference  is  to  an  altar  of  Ares  said  to  be  old. 

284  Paus.  8.  37,  12.  The  reference  is  to  an  altar  of  Ares  in  the  temple  of 
prophetic  Pan  above  the  shrine  of  Despoena. 


61 

should  be  compared  the  statement  of  Arnobius/^^  that  there 
was  a  legend  of  thirteen  months'  servitude  exacted  of  Ares  in 
Arcadia.  The  general  tendency  of  all  the  evidence  is  in 
support  of  the  theory  that  the  cult  of  Ares  TvvaiKoOoivm 
originated  in  primitive  times. 

There  were  two  other  legends  of  armed  women  in  Greece, 
both  localised,  like  the  Tegeate  story,  in  the  Peloponnese. 
A  statue  of  Ares  at  Argos  was  explained  as  the  dedication  of  a 
band  of  women  under  the  poetess  Telesilla  who  had  won  a 
victory  over  the  Spartans.^^®  The  other  legend  belonged 
to  Sparta.  Here  a  troop  of  women  commemorated,  their 
victory  over  the  Messenians  by  founding  a  temple  to  Aphro- 
dite 'Apeiar^"^  The  most  obvious  interpretation  of  the 
epithet  is  to  derive  it  from  Ares  and  to  render  it  "Warlike." 
It  is  used  of  Athena  in  three  oaths  of  alliance  suggestive  of  the 
martial  character  of  the  goddess.^^^  The  Athenians  built  a 
temple  to  Athena  'Apeia  at  Plataea,  constructed  from  the 
spoils  of  Marathon.^^^  After  his  acquittal  on  the  Areopagus 
Orestes  is  said  to  have  dedicated  an  altar  to  Athena  ^Apeiar^^ 
In  this  the  reference  is  evidently  to  the  name  of  the  hill  on 
which  the  court  sat,  which  the  Greeks  themselves,  however 
mistaken  they  may  have  been  in  their  etymology,  certainly 
connected  with  Ares.^^^  These  instances  of  the  use  of  the 
epithet  favour  the  idea  that  it  was  derived  from  the  name  of 
Ares.  It  may  be  argued  that  Aphrodite  'Apeia  was  a  type  of 
the  goddess  conceived  as  guardian  of  the  state.  In  this 
aspect  she  was  more  frequently  worshipped  at  Sparta  than 
elsewhere   in   Greece.     The   probabilities   are   that   she   was 

"s  Arnob.  Adv.  Nat.  4.  25. 

''6  Plut.  Alulier.  Virt.  5.     Herodotus  refers  to  the  story,  but  not  explicitly 
(3. 76-83).    Pausanias  mentions  the  exploit,  but  does  not  speak  of  Ares  (2.  20,  8). 
2"  Lactant.  De  Falsa  Relig.  1.  20.     Cf.  Paus.  3.  17,  5. 
»88  C.  I.  A.  2.  333;  C.  I.  G.  3137;  Frankel,  Inschr.  v.  Perg.  1.  13. 
"»  Paus.  9.  4,  1. 
""Paus.  1.  28,  5. 
291  In  ancient  literature  the  word  Areopagus  is  always  derived  from  Ares. 


62 

represented  armed.^^^  This  political  goddess  of  Sparta  was 
the  Oriental  Aphrodite,  called  Urania.  The  fact  that  one 
group  of  armed  women  gave  special  honour  to  Ares,  another 
to  Aphrodite  'Apeia,  is  of  importance  to  the  investigation. 
The  hint  that  the  two  deities  were  in  some  way  associated 
suggests  connection  between  Ares  and  the  Anatolian  cult  of 
the  warlike  Mother  whom  the  Amazons  worshipped. 

It  would  seem  that  the  connection  between  Ares  and  the 
Warlike  Aphrodite  was  not  slight.  At  Thebes  the  joint  cult 
of  the  two  as  a  conjugal  pair  was  established  at  an  early  date,^^^ 
and  their  union  was  said  to  have  given  rise  to  the  Cadmean 
family  and  thence  to  Dionysus.  Through  marriage  with 
Harmonia,  daughter  of  Ares  and  Aphrodite,  Cadmus  obtained 
the  throne,  and  from  the  teeth  of  the  serpent  sacred  to  Ares 
he  raised  up  the  famous  crop  of  warriors.-'^*  TiimpeP^^ 
believes  that  the  joint  cult  of  Ares  and  Aphrodite  originated 
at  Thebes,  and  that  from  this  city  it  spread  through  Greece, 
acquiring  prominence  in  Attica  and  Arcadia.  He  finds  the 
goddess  to  be  the  Oriental  Urania,  yet,  strangely  enough,  he  is 
unwilling  to  believe  that  she  was  conceived  as  an  armed  god- 
dess in  the  earliest  times  at  Thebes. 

In  Laconia,  where  Warlike  Aphrodite,  or  Urania,  was 
specially  reverenced,  the  cult  of  Ares  was  more  dignified  and 
apparently  more  ancient  than  in  other  parts  of  Greece. 
Epicharmus  is  said  to  have  claimed  the  deity  as  a  Spartan. ^^^ 
Under  the  name  Enyalius  he  was  worshipped  by  the  Spartan 
ephebes.^"     Each  of  the  two  bands  into  which  the  youths  were 

292  Cf.  Paus.  3.  23,  1;  C.  I.  G.  3.  p.  683,  1444;  Antipater,  A.  A.  O.  176. 

2"  In  the  Aeschylean  Septem  the  Thebans  call  upon  Ares  and  Cypris  as  the 
ancestors  of  their  race  (125-129). 

2"  On  the  marriage  of  Ares  and  Harmonia  v.  Hesiod,  Theog.  933  ff.  Cf.  the 
stock  genealogy  in  the  Bacchae  of  Euripides. 

296  Tiimpel,  Ares  u.  Aphrodite,  Fleckeisen's  Jahrhucher,  Suppl.  1  (1880), 
pp.  641-754. 

29«  Arnobius,  Adv.  Nat.  4.  25. 

2"  Paus.  3.  14,  10;  3.  20,  2. 


63 

divided  sacrificed  a  puppy  to  him,  performing  the  ceremony 
at  night  in  the  Phoebaeum  near  Therapne.  The  ritual  bears 
throughout  the  marks  of  primitive  times.  The  most  striking 
detail  is  the  sacrifice  of  dogs,  in  mentioning  which  Pausanias 
remarks  that  he  knows  of  only  one  other  instance,  namely, 
to  Enodia,  or  Hecate,  at  Colophon.  There  are,  however, 
other  records  of  the  practice,^^^  in  which  it  is  noteworthy  that 
the  custom  belongs  to  the  worship  of  Hecate.  Ares  was 
worshipped  under  his  own  name  at  Therapne  in  a  temple  which 
Pausanias^^^  describes  as  one  of  the  earliest  monuments  in  the 
region.  The  cult  legend  was  that  the  image  was  brought  from 
Colchis  by  the  Dioscuri.  The  god  had  a  strange  epithet, 
Theritas,  supposedly  derived  from  Thero,  the  name  of  his 
nurse.  Pausanias  is  so  dissatisfied  with  this  etymology  that 
he  suggests  that  the  word  was  learned  from  the  Colchians  and 
was  unintelligible  to  the  Greeks.  Wide^°°  states  a  plausible 
hypothesis,  that  the  cult  was  of  Boeotian  origin,  basing  his 
theory  on  the  affiliations  of  the  word  Theritas.  It  may, 
however,  have  been  a  very  early  indigenous  cult,  for  Therapne 
was  evidently  an  important  pre-Dorian  site,  as  excavations 
have  proved.^^^  Here  the  Dioscuri  received  special  honours, 
and  Helen  was  worshipped  from  old  times  as  a  nature  god- 
dess.^°^  Pausanias^"^  was  told  that  the  town  was  named  from 
a  daughter  of  Lelex.  It  is  possible  to  infer  that  the  cult 
of  Ares  Theritas,  in  which  the  temple  was  one  of  the  oldest 
monuments  in  a  region  where  pre-Dorian  influence  was 
strong,  was  "Lelegian."  The  people  who  established  it 
would  thus  be  akin  to  the  Curetes  of  Aetolia  and  Acarnania. 
The    connection   with    the    Dioscuri   favours    the   theory ,^°* 

25'  Rouse  collects  the  examples,  Greek  Votive  Offerings,  p.  298,  n.  9. 

"9  Paus.  3.  19,  7-9. 

s""  S.  Wide,  Lakonische  Kulte,  pp.  149  fif. 

301  British  School  Annual,  15  (1908-09),  pp.  108-157;  16  (1909-10).  pp.  4-11. 

">2  Cf.  Btsh.  Sch.  Anniial,  I.  c;  Frazer,  Paws.  2.  pp.  358-359. 

30'  Paus.  3.  19,  9. 

'0*  V.  ch.  IV,  p.  55. 


64 

There  are  two  other  examples  of  the  Laconian  worship  of 
Ares.  As  Enyalius^"^  he  had  a  statue  at  Sparta  near  the 
Dromos,  which  represented  him  in  fetters.  In  Ancient  Village, 
a  hamlet  near  Geronthrae,  he  had  a  sacred  grove  and  temple. 
Here  there  was  an  annual  festival  from  which  women  were 
excluded.^"^ 

It  is,  on  the  whole,  safe  to  conclude  that  in  Laconia  Ares 
was  revered  in  early  times.  The  cult  may  have  been  indig- 
enous among  the  pre-Dorians,  or  it  may  have  been  an  importa- 
tion from  Boeotia,  where  he  was  worshipped  with  Aphrodite. 
Possibly  the  Fettered  Ares  of  Sparta  should  be  connected  with 
a  Fettered  Aphrodite^°^  in  the  same  city.  The  two  types  may 
have  given  rise  to  a  tale  like  that  of  Arcadia,  of  the  servitude 
of  Ares,^^^  and  the  "lay  of  Demodocus"  in  the  Odyssey  could 
be  referred  to  some  such  myth.  Traditions  of  armed  women  in 
Tegea  and  in  Sparta  serve  to  connect  Ares  in  Arcadia  with 
Aphrodite  'Apeia  in  Sparta. 

There  are  not  many  traces  of  the  cult  of  Ares  elsewhere 
in  Greece.  The  mythical  genealogies  of  northern  Greece 
associated  him  with  Minyan  Orchomenus,^°^  Minyan  Thes- 
saly,^^°  Curetis,^"  and  Aetolia.^^^  Mention  has  already  been 
made  of  Thebes.  At  Athens^^^  he  was  said  to  have  been  the 
father  of  Alcippe  by  Aglaurus,  a  primitive  goddess.  In  the 
Peloponnese  he  was  connected  by  genealogical  legends  with 

'OS  Paus.  3,  15,  7. 

»«« Paus.  3.  22,  7-8. 

*o''  Paus.  3.  15,  11. 

"8  V.  n.  285. 

*"' Ascalaphus  and  lalmenus  of  Orchomenus,  sons  of  Ares  by  Astyoche: 
Iliad,  2.  511-515;  9.  82;  13.  518;  Paus.  9.  37,  7. 

310  Phlegyas  of  Thessaly,  son  of  Ares  by  Chryse  of  Orchomentis:  Paus.  9.  36, 
1-4. 

'"  Evenus  and  Thestius,  sons  of  Ares  by  Demonice:  Apollod.  1.  7,  6. 

*"  Meleager,  son  of  Ares,  rather  than  Oeneus,  by  Althaea:  Apollod.  1.  8,  1; 
Eur.  Meleager,  Fr.  1. 

suPaus.  1.  21,  4;  Mar.  Par.,  C.  I.  G.  2374,  5. 


65 

Tegea/^^  Elis,^^^  and  Tritea  in  Achaea.^^^  It  is  impossible  to 
give  much  weight  to  such  myths  unsupported  by  further 
evidence,  inasmuch  as  there  was  a  tendency  among  Greek 
writers  of  all  times  to  consider  any  famous  warrior  of  the 
heroic  age  a  son  of  Ares.  The  statement  applies  also  to  war- 
like races  like  the  Phlegyae,  mentioned  by  Homer  and  other 
poets. 

This  investigation  of  the  worship  of  Ares  in  Greece  proper 
yields  two  important  results:  first,  it  tends  to  indicate  that 
the  god  was  worshipped  in  primitive  times;  secondly,  in  the 
relation  between  the  cult  of  Ares  and  that  of  the  Oriental 
Aphrodite  at  an  early  date  in  Thebes,  and  in  the  hints  of  a 
similar  connection  in  Arcadia  and  Laconia,  there  is  the  sug- 
gestion of  contact  with  the  Amazons,  who  worshipped  a  god- 
dess resembling  this  Aphrodite.  This  raises  the  question 
whether  the  period  may  be  determined  in  which  the  joint  cult 
originated  in  Greek  lands. 

FarnelF^^  conjectures  that  at  Thebes  the  Oriental  goddess 
was  brought  from  the  east  by  the  "Cadmeans,"  while  Ares 
was  an  ancient  god  of  the  land.  He  believes  that  "by  the 
fiction  of  a  marriage"  her  cult  was  reconciled  to  the  older 
worship.  The  hostility  of  Cadmus  toward  the  sacred  serpent 
of  Ares  and  the  wrath  of  the  god  against  the  hero  are  legendary 
details  which  support  some  such  theory  as  this.  Cadmus 
seems  to  have  been  a  late  comer,  for  he  is  not  mentioned  in 
the  Homeric  poems,  where  Amphion  and  Zethus  are  named  as 
the  founders  of  Thebes.^^^  It  looks  as  if  in  Elis  also  a  form  of 
the  Oriental  Aphrodite  was  reconciled  with  an  indigenous  cult 

'"  Aeropus  of  Tegea,  son  of  Ares  by  Aerope:  v.  supra,  p.  60. 

'"  Oenomaiis,  reputed  son  of  Ares  by  Harpina:  Paus.  5.  22,  6. 

''^  Melanippus,  oecist  of  Tritea,  son  of  Ares:  Paus.  7.  22,  8.  There  was  a 
Theban  Melanippus,  famous  as  a  warrior  at  the  time  of  the  first  attack  on  Thebes 
(Paus.  9.  18,  1).  There  was  also  a  Melanippus  at  Patrae  in  Achaea,  who  with 
his  love  Comaetho  was  sacrificed  to  Artemis  Triclaria  (Paus.  7.  19,  2-5). 

51'  Farnell,  op.  cit.  2.  p.  623. 

^^^  Odyssey,  11.  262. 
6 


66 

of  Ares.  Here  the  genealogical  myth  is  not  the  only  evidence 
for  the  worship  of  Ares;  an  altar  to  Ares  in  the  race-course  at 
Olympia  attests  the  cult.^^^  By  the  legend  Pelops  married 
Hippodamia,  granddaughter  to  Ares.  Hesychius^^"  identifies 
her  with  Aphrodite,  and  Pelops,  like  Cadmus,  was  conceived 
as  coming  from  the  east.^^^  The  parallel  is  practically  exact. 
In  the  case  of  Pelops  the  legends  which  connect  him  with 
Lydia  and  Paphlagonia  are  more  plausibly  interpreted  as 
reflexes  of  Hellenic  settlement  in  Asia  Minor  than  as  the  record 
of  the  planting  of  an  Asiatic  colony  near  Olympia.^-^  There- 
fore the  cult  of  Aphrodite-Hippodamia  would  seem  to  have 
come  into  Elis  by  means  of  religious  influence  flowing  back 
from  the  stream  of  emigration  to  the  east.  Thus  the  Elean 
parallel  would  be  of  service  to  Farnell's  argument.  The 
Attic  myth  of  Theseus  tends,  however,  to  support  the  opposite 
theory.  This  saga  certainly  preserved  the  memory  of  the 
predominance  of  Crete  in  the  Aegean.^-^  Thus  Aphrodite- 
Ariadne  probably  belonged  to  the  pre-Hellenic  inhabitants  of 
Attica.  It  may  be  stated  as  an  hypothesis  that  Ares  was  also 
worshipped  in  very  early  times  at  Athens.  The  evidence  is 
this:  his  connection  with  Aglaurus,  who  seems  to  have  been  a 
primitive  goddess  ;^^^  the  invocation  of  Ares  and  Enyalius  in 
the  ephebes'  oath,  which  associates  him  with  Aglaurus,  the 
Attic  Charites,  and  Hegemonef-^  the  well  established  cult  of 
Ares  in  the  fifth  century  on  the  lower  slopes  of  the  Areopagus.^"* 
The  association  with  Hegemone  is  of  special  value,  inasmuch 
as  the  epithet  belongs  to  Aphrodite  and  to  an  Artemis  similar 
to  Astrateia. 

319  Paus.  5.  15,  6. 

'2°  Hesychius  s.v. 

'21  Cf.  Paus.  5.  13,  7. 

^^^  The  name  Pelops  first  appears  in  the  Cypria  (Schol.  Pind.  Nem.  10. 114). 

^'  V.  supra,  p.  59. 

'2<  V.  supra,  n.  313. 

^^  V.  supra,  ch.  IV,  p.  47. 

'*«  Judeich,  op.  cit.  p.  311. 


67 

The  only  direct  information  so  far  given  concerning  the 
worship  of  Ares  by  the  Amazons  comes  from  Athens.^^^ 
Therefore  it  is  reasonable  to  lay  stress  on  the  legend  of  the 
Oriental  Aphrodite  in  this  state.^-^  Yet  we  have  no  explicit 
statement  that  she  was  related  to  Ares  in  his  capacity  of  patron 
of  the  Amazons.  The  nearest  approach  to  a  solution  of  the 
problem  is  possibly  to  be  found  in  the  ancient  association 
between  Ares  and  Enyo.^^^  Enyo  was  apparently  identified 
with  the  armed  goddess  of  Cappadocia  who  was  known  as 
Ma,  who,  in  turn,  was  identified  with  Cybele  as  Mother  of 
the  Gods.^^°  Aphrodite-Ariadne  and  the  Armed  Aphrodite 
are  in  a  measure  forms  of  the  Mother.  Hence  by  an  equation 
Aphrodite  under  these  two  types  becomes  identical  w4th  Enyo, 
the  companion  of  Ares. 

The  evidence  thus  far  gathered  for  a  relation  between  Ares 
and  the  Amazons  may  be  stated.  (1)  Aeschylus  mentions 
their  habitual  worship  of  this  god  while  they  were  besieging 
Athens;  (2)  Plutarch  represents  Theseus  at  this  time  sacri- 
ficing to  Phobus,  son  of  Ares;  (3)  Pausanias  describes  the 
temple  of  Ares  at  Troezen  as  a  trophy  of  the  victory  of  Theseus 
over  the  Amazons;  (4)  in  the  association  between  Ares  and 
Aphrodite  in  several  places,  in  similar  association  between 
Ares  and  Enyo,  and  in  the  identification  both  of  this  Aphrodite 
and  of  Enyo  with  the  Mother  whom  the  Amazons  worshipped, 
there  are  obscure  indications  of  his  belonging  to  the  rites  of 
the  Mother;  (5)  there  are  fairly  good  reasons  for  holding  that 
Ares  was  an  early,  or  pre-Hellenic  god.  According  to  this 
evidence  it  is  presumable  that  the  connection  between  Ares 
and  the  Amazons  was  indirect  rather  than  direct.     A  striking 

'"Aeschyl.  I.  c.  (Eum.  685-690). 

'"  Tiimpel  (op.  cit.)  finds  traces  of  the  Theban  cult  of  Ares  and  Aphrodite 
in  Attica.  He  does  not  take  into  consideration  the  connections  of  the  legend  of 
Ariadne. 

MS  Iliad,  5.  592. 

«»  V.  supra,  ch.  II,  p.  27,  n.  119. 


68 

fact  should  be  added.  Wherever  there  were  memorials  of  the 
Amazons  in  Greece — at  Athens,  Troezen,  Megara  and  Chae- 
ronea  in  Boeotia,  Chalcis  in  Euboea/^^  Thessaly^^^ — there  are 
some  indications  in  each  canton  that  the  cult  of  Ares  was  there 
in  early  times. 

There  are  two  other  sets  of  records  which  belong  to  the 
discussion  of  the  cult  of  Ares  in  its  relation  to  the  Amazons. 
Of  these  the  first  is  a  small  group  of  ancient  references  to  the 
Amazons  as  children  of  Ares.  Euripides^^^  terms  them 
'A/acta?  K6pa<i,  a  phrase  echoed  in  the  Latin  Mavortia  applied 
to  one  of  them.^^^  The  term  is  of  no  value  toward  establishing 
a  theory  of  a  cult  relation  with  Ares,  for  it  as  colourless  as  are 
the  familiar  epic  phrases,  0^09  "Aprjo';  and  Oepdirovre';  "AprfOf:, 
applied  to  warriors.  Elsewhere,  however,  the  Amazons  are 
conceived  as  actually  daughters  of  the  god.  The  stock  gene- 
alogy assigned  to  the  race  made  them  the  children  of  Ares  and 
Harmonia,^^^  while  Otrere  is  individually  named  as  the  child 
of  these  parents.^^^  Harmonia's  name  is  easily  associated 
with  that  of  Ares,  since  in  Theban  legends  she  appears  as  his 
daughter.  It  is  therefore  tempting  to  see  in  the  mother  of 
the  race  the  goddess  Aphrodite.  But  it  is  impossible  to  follow 
out  the  clue.     The  relationship  is  manifestly  a  stereotyped  one, 

531  The  early  folk  of  Chalcis  in  Euboea  seem  to  have  been  akin  to  the  Leleges 
and  Abantes  of  Boeotia.  There  were  connections  also  with  Chalcis  of  the  Curetes 
in  Aetolia.  Cf.  Iliad,  2.  536  ff.;  Pans.  5.  22,  3-4;  9.  5,  1;  10.  35,  5.  The  most 
important  connection  here  is  that  with  Boeotia,  where  the  worship  of  Ares 
certainly  belonged.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Chalcodon,  the  great  Homeric 
hero  of  Euboea  (Iliad,  2.  541),  had  an  heroiim  at  Athens  in  the  plain  where 
there  were  many  memorials  of  the  Amazons  (Plut.  Thes.  27,  3). 

3'2  The  genealogies  of  Thessaly  are  worth  considering,  because  they  show 
the  persistent  tradition  of  relationship  between  the  primitive  folk  of  this  canton 
and  Boeotia.     V.  n.  310. 

333  Eur.  Here.  Fur.  Fr.  413. 

334  Val.  Flacc.  5.  90. 

336  For  references  v.  n.  10. 

336  Ap.  Rh.  2.  389;  Schol.  Tzetz.  Post-Horn.  8.  189;  Schol.  Ap.  Rh.  2,  1032; 
Hyg.  Fab.  30,  112,  163,  223,  225. 


69 

manufactured  by  logographers.  Furthermore,  the  mother 
is  not  consistently  called  Harmonia.  At  times  she  appears  as 
Armenia/^^  from  which  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  name  of  the 
mother  of  the  Amazons  came  from  the  study  of  geography,  and 
that  Harmonia's  crept  in  as  a  corruption.  Arctinus^^^  called 
Penthesilea  a  Thracian  and  the  daughter  of  Ares.  Possibly 
the  theory  that  the  race  in  general  were  children  of  Ares  may 
have  originated  thus,  or  in  some  other  poem  of  the  Cycle. 
If  the  Amazons  had  not  been  conspicuously  warriors,  and  if 
it  were  not  at  first  sight  a  figure  of  speech  to  term  a  band 
of  women  the  children  of  the  war-god,  it  would  be  easier  to 
judge  whether  these  statements  are  poetical  or  representations 
of  the  view  of  genealogists. 

The  reference  to  Thrace  is  more  valuable.  Herodotus^^^ 
shows  that  the  cult  of  Ares  was  important  here,  for  he  says 
that  the  Thracians  worshipped  three  gods.  Ares,  Dionysus,  and 
Artemis.  As  it  has  been  said,  the  sacrifice  of  dogs  in  the 
Spartan  ritual  of  Enyalius  finds  its  only  parallels  in  the  rites 
of  Thracian  Hecate.^'*°  Many  modern  authorities^'*^  believe 
that  the  cult  of  Ares  was  of  Thracian  origin. ^^^  The  rites  of 
Dionysus,  to  whom  he  was  akin,^^^  belong  also  to  the  orgiastic 
ceremonies  of  Phrygia.  In  general,  as  it  has  been  noted,  there 
is  striking  similarity  between  the  cults  of  Phrygia  and  those 
of  Thrace.  This  comes  out  strongly  in  the  worship  of  the 
Mother.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  custom  of  sacrificing  dogs, 
a  conspicuous  and  difficult  feature  in  the  rites  of  Ares  and  also 

'"  The  word  appears  in  Pherecydes,  but,  because  the  corruption  may  be  a 
scribe's  error,  no  argument  can  be  based  on  this. 

338  V.  ch.  I,  p.  3. 

339  Herod.  5.  7. 

3«  V.  supra,  pp.  26,  63. 

3"  Among  them  are  Miss  Harrison  (Proleg.  pp.  375-379) ;  Tiimpel  (op.  cit. 
p.  662) ;  Farnell  (op.  cit.  ch.  on  Ares) ,  who  states  the  theory  tentatively. 

3**  Sophocles  held  this  view  (ap.  Arnob.  Adv.  Nat.  I.  c).  Cf.  St.  Basil,  who 
gives  'Apefa  as  the  old  name  of  Thrace  (s.v.  'Apet'a). 

3"  J.  E.  Harrison,  Proleg.  I.  c. 


70 

of  Hecate,  belonged  to  the  Carian  worship  of  Ares.^^  It 
should  be  added  that  at  Lagina  in  Caria  the  orgiastic  worship 
of  Hecate  was  established  with  the  peculiar  characteristic  of 
the  cult  of  Cybele  at  Pessinus  and  of  Artemis  at  Ephesus.^^^ 
Thus  from  all  sides  the  theory  finds  support  that  the  cult  of 
Ares  should  be  classed  as  Thracian-Phrygian  and  connected 
with  that  of  the  Mother.  The  inference  is  that  the  pre- 
Hellenic  Ares  of  the  Greek  mainland  was  a  god  of  the  people 
who  had  a  pre-historic  culture  allied  to  the  "Minoan." 

ApoUonius  Rhodius^^^  represents  the  Amazons  engaged  in  a 
ritual  as  strange  as  the  sacrifice  of  dogs  which  suggests  Thrace 
and  Caria.  He  relates  that  on  "Ares  island"  in  Pontus  they 
sacrificed  horses  in  the  temple  of  Ares.  An  obscure  record  of 
this  is  apparently  preserved  by  the  Scholiast  on  a  line  in  the 
Lysistrata  of  Aristophanes.^^^  The  scholium  mentions  no 
deity  by  name;  it  merely  comments  on  the  legend  that  Ama- 
zons sacrificed  horses.  Ares  is  not  elsewhere  than  in  the 
passage  from  ApoUonius  named  as  a  god  thus  worshipped,  and 
possibly  here,  even  in  the  temple  of  Ares,  the  ritual  is  to  be 
referred  rather  to  the  worship  of  Cybele  under  baetylic  form 
than  to  that  of  Ares.  The  victim  was  a  rare  one  among  the 
Greeks,  belonging  to  Apollo,  Helios,  the  wind-gods,  and 
especially  to  Poseidon.  It  may  be  that  the  words  of  Apol- 
lonius  imply  a  connection  between  the  cult  of  Ares  and  that  of 
Poseidon  Hippius.  At  Troezen  the  temple  of  Ares  gave  access 
to  the  Genethlium,  probably  a  shrine  of  Poseidon  f^^  at  Athens 
there  was  the  story  of  the  murder  of  Halirrhothius,  son  of 
Poseidon  ;^^^  at  Olympia  the  altar  of  Ares  was  dedicated  to 

»"  Arnob.  I.  c.  {Adv.  Nat.  4.  25). 

"'  V.  supra,  n.  77. 

««Ap.  Rh.  2.  1179;  cf.  2.  387.     V.  supra,  n.  66. 

'"  Aristoph.  Lys.  191.  Undue  importance  has  been  given  to  the  scholium 
by  Preller-Robert  (p.  343,  n.  5),  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Farnell,  in  bringing 
forward  this  criticism,  fails  to  give  due  weight  to  the  quotation  from  ApoUonius. 

»"  V.  supra,  nn.  271,  272. 

»"  Paus.  1.  21,  4;  1.  28,  5. 


71 

Ares  Hippius.^^''  The  cult  of  Poseidon  Hippius  at  Athens 
seems  to  have  been  in  some  way  connected  with  that  of  the 
pre-Ionic  Semnae,  or  Eumenides,  both  at  Colonus  Hippius 
and  on  the  Areopagus,^^^  Possibly  the  Troezenian  legend  of 
the  death  of  Hippolytus  suggests  jealousy  between  Ares,  a 
divinity  of  the  Amazons,  and  Poseidon,  the  reputed  father  of 
Theseus.  The  ritual  of  horse  sacrifice  among  the  Amazons 
may  be  the  basis  of  the  tradition  that  they  were  skilful  horse- 
women. 

The  sacrifice  of  horses  to  Ares  is  recorded  as  a  custom  of  the 
Scythians,^^^  a  people  who  apparently  associated  the  horse 
with  funerary  oblations. ^^^ 

The  best  example  of  this  sacrifice  in  the  rites  of  the  war-god 
comes  from  Rome,^^'*  where  on  October  fifteenth  there  was  an 
annual  race  of  bigae  in  the  Campus  Martins,  after  which  the 
near  horse  of  the  winning  pair  was  sacrificed  to  Mars,  and  his 
blood  was  allowed  to  drip  on  the  hearth  of  the  Regia.  Prob- 
ably the  blood  of  this  sacrifice  was  afterwards  mixed  with  the 
ingredients  of  the  sacred  cakes.  The  rite  evidently  was  in 
honour  of  Mars  as  a  deity  of  fertility.  He  was  undoubtedly 
worshipped  by  the  primitive  Romans  in  this  capacity  as  well 
as  in  that  of  warrior .^^^ 

Apparently  then  the  poetic  legend  of  the  Amazons'  offering 
horses  to  Ares  presents  him  in  a  very  primitive  aspect  with 
the  suggestion  that  he  was  a  chthonic  deity  of  fertility.  As 
warrior  and  giver  of  increase  he  resembles  Apollo  Carneiis. 
A  scholium^"^  furnishes  information  which  strengthens  the 
supposition  that  he  was  in  his  primitive  form  a  nature  god. 
This  tells  of  an  obsolete  custom  in  time  of  war,  by  which  the 

350  Paus.  5.  15,  6. 

361  Harrison  and  Verrall,  Myth,  and  Mons.  p.  601. 
«"  Arnob.  Adv.  Nat.  4.  25.     On  Scythian  Ares  cf.  Herod.  4.  62. 
353  Cf.  sacrifice  of  horses  in  Scythian  tumuli,  Arch.  Am.  1910,  195-244. 
364  Warde  Fowler,  Lustratio,  pp.  186  ff. 

3"  Warde  Fowler,  op.  cit.  and  J.  E.  Harrison,  Btsh^  Sch.  Annual,  190^09, 
pp.  331  ff. 

»6Schol.  Eur.  Phoen.  1186. 


72 

signal  for  attack  was  given  by  priests  of  Ares  called  Tvp4>6poL, 
who  hurled  lighted  torches  between  the  two  armies.  This 
suggests  the  orgiastic  cults  of  Thrace  and  Phrygia,  in  which  the 
torch  was  a  prominent  feature.  It  belonged  also  to  the  cere- 
monies of  fire  in  honour  of  Mars  in  primitive  Rome.^^ 

Even  in  ancient  times  there  were  conflicting  theories  con- 
cerning the  provenience  of  the  cult  of  Ares.  Arnobius^^^ 
says:  ''Quis  Spartanum  fuisse  Martem  (prodidit)?  Xon 
Epicharmus  auctor  vester?  Quis  is  Thraciae  finibus  pro- 
creatum?  Xon  Sophocles  Atticus  cunctis  consentientibus 
theatris?  Quis  mensibus  in  Arcadia  tribus  et  decem  vinctum? 
Quis  ei  canes  ab  Caribus,  quis  ab  Scythibus  asinos  immolari? 
Nonne  principaliter  cum  ceteris  Apollodorus?  "  The  general 
tendency  of  the  e\-idence  is  in  the  direction  of  the  theory  that 
Ares  was  an  ancient  god  of  the  Thracians,  of  the  pre-Hellenic 
peoples  of  Greece,  and  of  the  races  who  worshipped  the  IMother 
in  Asia  ]SIinor  and  Crete. 

As  a  god  whom  the  Amazons  worshipped  he  does  not  appear 
to  have  been  as  important  as  the  Mother.  The  records  of 
his  association  with  them  are  few  and  confused.  The  best 
evidence  is  doubtless  that  furnished  by  the  extant  accounts  of 
the  saga  of  Theseus  and  the  Amazons,  to  which  Ares  belongs, 
although  it  is  not  possible  to  define  his  position.  The  saga 
is  of  special  importance  in  being  analogous  to  the  Ephesian 
tales  of  Heracles  and  Dionysus. 

«■  J.  E.  Harrison,  Btsh.  Sch.  Ann.  I.  c.  On  chthonic  Ares  cf.  Artemid. 
Oneirocr.  2.  34. 

»' Amobius,  L  c.  (Adv.  Xat.  4.  25). 


CONXLUSION 

The  Amazons  were  votaries  of  Cybele,  Artemis  under  the 
surnames  Ephesia,  Tauropolos,  Lyceia,  and  Astrateia,  Apollo 
called  Amazonian,  and  Ares.  The  striking  feature  of  the  list 
is  the  homogeneity  of  its  components.  This  is  no  fortuitous 
circumstance,  for  the  authors  from  whom  it  has  been  compiled 
are  many,  and  they  belong  to  widely  separated  generations. 
The  list  represents  classical  opinion,  both  Greek  and  Latin, 
on  the  nature  of  the  divinities  whom  the  Amazons  were  con- 
ceived to  have  served.  It  must  be  concluded  that  these 
women  were  associated  with  the  cults  of  primitive  deities  of 
fertility  and  of  war,  among  whom  a  Woman  was  the  chief 
figure,  and  of  w^hom  the  rites  were  orgiastic.  In  historical 
times  such  cults  may  be  classed  as  Thracian-Phrygian,  and 
they  are  to  be  referred  to  the  people  who  inherited  both  the 
blood  and  the  spiritual  traditions  of  the  great  pre-historic 
civilisation  of  the  Aegean  basin,  of  which  the  brilliant  centre 
seems  to  have  been  Crete. 

The  theories  concerning  the  Amazons  which  have  com- 
manded most  respect  are  three:  (1)  that  the  tradition  arose 
from  memories  of  the  raids  of  warlike  women  of  the  Cim- 
merians and  kindred  peoples,  who  in  early  times  forced  their 
way  into  Asia  Minor  from  the  north;  (2)  that  the  Amazons 
were  originally  the  warrior-priestesses,  or  hieroduli,  of  the 
Hittite-Cappadocian  Ma,  and  that  the  Hittites  passed  on 
legends  about  them  to  the  people  of  Lycia,  Lydia,  and  adjoin- 
ing lands;  (3)  that  the  tradition  of  the  Amazons  was  grounded 
on  the  mistaken  notion,  deeply  rooted  among  the  Greeks, 
that  beardlessness  is  a  sure  indication  of  female  sex,  whence 
they  failed  to  recognise  as  men  certain  warriors  who  appeared 

at  an  early  date  as  foes  of  the  people  of  Asia  Minor.    To  the 

73 


74 

first^^^  of  these  it  is  to  be  objected — irrespective  of  evidence 
furnished  by  the  cults  with  which  the  Amazons  were  associ- 
ated— that  a  northern  home  beyond  the  Euxine  was  assigned 
to  the  race  by  Aeschylus  and  Herodotus,  but  that  the  oldest 
records  of  the  Greeks,  the  Homeric  poems,  place  them  near 
Lycia  and  Phrygia.  In  this  region  the  tradition  struck  down 
into  the  soil,  as  shown  by  the  tales  of  many  cities  claiming  the 
Amazons  as  their  founders.  To  the  second^^°  it  must  be 
replied  that  Ma  is  nowhere  named  in  direct  connection  with 
the  Amazons,  although  she  resembles  in  a  general  way  the 
female  deities  whom  they  were  said  to  have  worshipped. 
Furthermore,  in  the  records  of  her  rites  there  is  no  hint  of 
armed  hieroduli.^^^  And,  still  further,  the  evidence  on  which 
the  assumption  rests  that  the  Hittite  kingdom  was  one  of 
great  importance  and  influence  is  not  strong.  The  last 
theory^^-  is  very  interesting,  because  it  is  novel  and  daring, 
and  also  because  it  draws  attention  to  certain  curious  facts 
usually  overlooked  by  anthropologists.  But  as  a  foundation 
for  the  persistent  tradition  of  the  Amazons  as  armed  women 
it  is  too  slight  in  structure. 

369  On  the  theory  v.  O.  Kliigmann,  Philologus,  30  (1870),  pp.  524-556.  Stoll 
inclines  to  this  theory,  as  shown  by  his  article  in  Pauly's  Realenc.  s.v.  Klugmann. 
Other  advocates  are  Freret,  Memoire  de  Vacad.  d'inscr.  21.  pp.  106  S.;  Welcker, 
Ep.  Cycl.  2.  pp.  200  ff.  It  is  sympathetically  treated  in  Roscher's  Lexikon, 
s.v.  Amazonen.  Farnell  seems  inclined  to  accept  it,  although  he  does  not  ex- 
plicitly advance  an  opinion.  In  one  part  of  his  work  (op.  cit.  5.  p.  406)  he  takes 
the  negative  position  that  "the  Amazon  tradition  is  sporadic  in  Greece  and  per- 
plexes the  ethnographer  and  the  student  of  religion,"  yet  elsewhere  (2.  p.  482) 
he  makes  the  close  connection  between  Ephesian  Artemis  and  the  Amazons 
the  basis  of  the  suggestion  that  northern  Asia  Minor  was  perhaps  the  home  of 
the  cult. 

360  A.  H.  Sayce  is  the  chief  advocate  of  the  importance  of  the  Hittite  kindgom. 
His  most  recent  remarks  on  the  Amazons  are  in  Proc.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.  1910, 
pp.  25-26.  They  are  supported  by  A.  J.  Reinach,  Rev.  Arch.  1910,  pp.  280-282. 
Cf.  Leonhard,  Hettiter  u.  Amazonen,  1911. 

361  This  objection  is  made  by  Farnell,  op.  cit.  5.  p.  406. 

3M  This  is  the  theory  of  Myres  in  Anthropology  and  the  Classics,  pp.  138  ff. 
Farnell  is  more  satisfied  with  this  than  with  the  hieroduli  theory  (op.  cit.  5. 
p.  406). 


75 

The  tradition,  interpreted  in  the  Hght  of  evidence  furnished 
by  the  cults  which  they  are  supposed  to  have  practised,  seems 
to  have  originated  among  the  people  who  built  up  the  pre- 
historic civilisation  of  the  Aegean,  of  which  the  finished 
product  was  apparently  "Minoan"  culture.  In  their  warlike 
character  the  Amazons  are  reflexes  of  the  Woman  whom  they 
worshipped.  Like  the  Warrior  Goddess  of  Asia  Minor  they 
carry  the  battle-axe,  and  in  this  they  are  shown  to  be  closely 
related  to  the  religion  of  pre-historic  Crete,  of  which  the 
weapon  is  the  conspicuous  symbol.  Their  other  weapon,  the 
bow,  is  also  Cretan.^®^  It  is  the  attribute  of  the  Asiatic-Cretan 
Apollo  whom  they  seem  to  have  revered.  They  belong  to  the 
early  matriarchate,  which  left  traces  in  Caria  and  Lycia.^^^ 
In  Greece  itself,  even  in  Laconia,  the  canton  belonging  to  the 
fiercest  of  the  Hellenic  invaders  who  introduced  the  patri- 
archate, women  enjoyed  unusual  freedom  in  Greek  times,  and 
here  there  were  stories  of  their  having  borne  arms  for  their 
country.  There  were  similar  tales  at  Argos  and  in  Arcadia, 
and  at  the  Olympian  Heraeum  there  was  a  footrace  of  maidens 
in  honour  of  Hippodamia.^^^  These  arre  doubtless  vestiges  of 
the  matriarchate  of  the  pre-Hellenic  inhabitants  of  Greece. 
They  suggest  many  comparisons  with  the  Amazon  tradition. 
The  legend  of  Atalanta  offers  similar  parallels  to  the  story 
of  the  Amazons  in  its  pleasing  aspect.  Its  darker  side,  which 
the  older  Greeks  emphasised,  is  reflected  in  the  tale  of  the 
Lemnian  women  who  murdered  their  husbands.^^^  These  were 
Myrina's  children  and  descendants  of  Dionysus.  The  energy 
of  this  ancient  matriarchal  organisation  is  shown  in  the  idea 
of  confusion  of  sex  which  belonged  to  the  cults  of  Cybele  and 
Ephesian  Artemis  in  historical  times.     The  idea  is  prominent 

3M  Paus.  1.  23,  4. 
»"  Cf.  Myres,  op.  cit.  pp.  153  ff. 
366  Paus.  5.  16,  1  ff. 

'««  Apollod.  1.  9,  3.     At  Lemnos  there  were  Corybantic  rites  of  Bendis  (Strabo, 
p.  466). 


76 

in  the  legends  of  the  Amazons,  as  they  touch  rehgion.  At 
Ephesiis  they  were  connected  with  Dionysus  and  Heracles, 
to  both  of  whom  an  effeminate  character  belonged.  Their 
place  in  state  cult  at  Athens  has  the  same  implications. 

We  may  believe  then  that  the  tradition  of  the  Amazons 
preserves  memories  of  a  time  when  women  held  the  important 
place  in  state  and  religion  in  Aegean  lands,  and  that  they 
reflect  the  goddess  of  this  ci\'ilisation.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
the  earliest  writings  of  the  Greeks  concerning  them  show  them 
in  that  part  of  Asia  Minor  where  the  rites  of  the  Mother 
throughout  ancient  times  menaced  the  reason  of  her  wor- 
shippers. The  troop  of  maenads  who  followed  Dionysus  were 
like  the  Amazons,  but  the  clue  to  their  kinship  was  easily 
lost.^^'  The  relation  between  the  Amazons  and  the  Anatolian 
cults  was  practically  obliterated,  whereas  maenads  were 
introduced  into  Greek  religion  after  many  generations  had 
altered  the  first  form  of  orgiastic  worship.  Moreover,  the 
deity  of  the  maenads,  who  was  earlier  only  the  paredros  of 
the  Woman,  had  become  an  Olympian, 

Greek  travellers  of  the  age  of  Herodotus  naturally  inferred 
that  they  had  discovered  the  Amazons  in  the  regions  of 
Sc^-thia  and  Libya  where  armed  women  were  said  to  fight  in 
the  ranks  ^\-ith  men.  Even  before  this  time  the  traditional 
home  of  the  race  had  been  placed  further  and  further  eastward, 
as  Greek  colonists  failed  to  find  Amazons  in  Lydia,  Phrygia, 
Lycia,  and  along  the  southern  shore  of  the  Euxine.  Yet, 
granted  the  origin  of  the  Amazon  tradition  among  the  "Min- 
oans"  and  their  kindred,  it  is  at  present  impossible  to  say  that 
these  pre-historic  races  had  no  affiliations  with  Scythians, 
Libyans,  and  Hittites. 

S6"  The  germ  of  the  thought  is  in  R.  Y.  Tjirell's  Preface  to  his  edition  of  the 
Bacchae  of  Euripides.     V.  p.  LXXXIII  (ed.  1906). 


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